Agile Urban Climate Spaces as adaptive Climate Response Units: Building collective knowledge across Cairo and Geneva’s adaptation of urban spaces to extreme weather events

Swiss partners

• Université de Genève: Alexandre Babak Hedjazi, Matteo Tarantin

 MENA partners

• Cairo University: Hebaallah Khalil, 

• Habitat for Humanity International: Deena Khalil

Presentation of the project

The project proposes to establish a research agenda on urban climate adaptation taking first stock of knowledge and practices in Geneva and Cairo around the concept of Agile Urban Climate Spaces—public spaces and infrastructures designed or retrofitted to adapt to extreme climate events, particularly heatwaves, while fostering long-term urban resilience. These spaces integrate green (vegetation), blue (water), and grey (infrastructure) systems into flexible urban units that provide cooling, optimize water use, strengthen social inclusion, and enhance community health. They can be rapidly reconfigured and scaled, bridging formal and informal urban areas.