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universidade lusófona

Climate Action

Climate change has been posed as one of the greatest threats to the comfort and health of our buildings and infrastructure.
Although the uncertainty associated with the magnitude of the change is large, the fact that our climate is changing is unequivocal. As a result, making buildings and infrastructure (and their surroundings) more resilient to climate change is a priority for owners and authorities. An early and planned climate adaptation action will increase the comfort, durability, and safety of our buildings and infrastructure and therefore save money and, ultimately, lives.
 

The Journey

Adaptation (and mitigation) is the pathway for new and existing buildings and infrastructure on their climate journey. This action brings together some answers to some unknowns.

Expertise

We have already started to ground our expertise in several areas:
  • Impact of climate change in structural health monitoring of bridges
  • Bridge adaptation strategies
  • Physics-based modeling for climate change scenarios
  • Integrating modeling (hydrological, reservoir, and hydraulic models) to analyze impacts on downstream infrastructures, to create scenarios, and to study infrastructure vulnerability
  • Hydrological and hydraulic modeling of risk areas for different scenarios (e.g., flood risk areas)
  • Analysis of the water regime under different scenarios in hydraulic infrastructure
  • Analysis of indoor comfort conditions and health in new and existing buildings
  • Green solutions for buildings in urban areas
  • Assessment of nature-based solutions for urban climate adaptation
  • Eco-design of road pavement solutions to contribute to the decarbonization of the sector
  • Bio-based solutions for road infrastructure

Research Projects

Workshop - Uncertain Climate Futures

Consensus Statement achieved from the International Workshop on Uncertain Climate Futures – a New Reality for Structural Design and Integrity Management - held in Copenhagen on June 16-17, 2025. You can find more information here.

Special Issue on "Impact of climate change on the structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure"

This special issue published in the Structural Health Montioring: An International Journal intends to bring together publications involving studies on the impacts of climate change on the SHM of infrastructure. Five publications have been incorporated into this special issue, and their contributions are summarized in https://doi.org/10.1177/14759217251351724.

Ongoing Special Issues/Sessions

SPECIAL ISSUE on the “Sustainable Urban Green Infrastructure and Its Effects”. Guest Editors: Maria Manso (Lusófona University) and Cristina Monteiro (Portuguese Catholic University - Porto). This Special Issue aims to gather research papers focusing on sustainable urban green infrastructure to address the current challenges faced by urban land tissue change and climatic conditions regarding building design and urban planning. The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 20th January 2026. For more information
Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/163NZ73PDL

THEMATIC SESSION 10: Nature-based Solutions for Resilient Urban Environments, CEES2025, Bari, Italy, organized by Maria Manso (Lusófona University) and Cristina Monteiro (Portuguese Catholic University - Porto). For more information
Link to book of proceedings: https://link.springer.com/book/9789819518258

SPECIAL ISSUE on the “Water Sustainability: River Basin Management, Water Quality and Quantity Monitoring – Second Edition”. Guest Editor: Carina Almeida (Lusófona University). For this Special Issue, studies on the latest knowledge in the field of sustainable water management will be especially welcome, with the aim of covering different methodologies in order to test different scenarios. Therefore, this Special Issue welcomes contributions such as original research articles, technical articles, or reviews, which may be related to water management in urban areas, agriculture, industry, water-use efficiency, etc. The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 17 January 2025. For more information

SPECIAL ISSUE on the “Climate Change Impacts on Bridges, Roads, and Buildings”. Guest Editors: Quoc Bao Pham (University of Silesia), Este endereço de email está protegido contra piratas. Necessita ter o JavaScript autorizado para o visualizar. (Lusófona University), Tu Dam Ngoc Le (Mientrung University of Civil Engineering). The primary goals of this collection are: understanding vulnerability and exploring adaptation strategies. The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 30th April 2024. For more information

Conferences and Workshops

We are pleased to announce that CYENS Centre of Excellence will host the upcoming International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC 2025), taking place on October 22–24, 2025 in Nicosia, Cyprus.
This major international conference will bring together academics, professionals, public sector representatives, and innovators to exchange ideas and solutions in the fields of disaster risk reduction, climate resilience, crisis response, and emerging technologies.

Michael H. Faber is Workshop Chair and Keynote Speaker

Webinars

Taylor and Francis cordially invites you to The Role of Applied Geophysics and Infrastructure Monitoring in Urban Planning and Resilience webinar on 9th of May 2024. This webinar, presented in conjunction with Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, welcomes two thought leaders from the global research community, who both present a different perspective on the ways in which GIS and Remote Sensing can help us to create the sustainable and resilient cities of the future. Register for free here

Spotlight

Thematic Commission on Transportation Infrastructure. Working groups (WGs) were created for each mode of transport, representing both academia and the public and business sectors, with the aim of preparing a report on the impact of climate change on transportation infrastructure under the Thematic Commission on Transportation Infrastructure of the associate observers of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). For more information.

Have a look at ASCE’s support to the Sustainable Development Goals, in which our “Roadmap for an Integrated Assessment Approach to the Adaptation of Concrete Bridges to Climate Change” has been selected to inspire action – The video.

ASCE’s Special Collection for UN SDG Goal 13: Climate Action

 Relevant Publications