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View of Piran, Slovenia

Piran turns into live lab to find climate change mitigating solutions

Piran turns into live lab to find climate change mitigating solutions

The Slovenian municipality is an associate partner in the Smart Control of the Climate Resilience of European Coastal Cities project

The Slovenian coastal town of Piran, known for its Venetian architecture, will become one of ten live laboratories across Europe seeking sustainable solutions to dampen the impact of climate change, reported STA quoting a press release by the Scientific and Research Centre (ZRC) in Koper. The municipality is partnering Smart Control of the Climate Resilience of European Coastal Cities (SCORE), an EU-funded project worth EUR 10 million, which was launched in July 2021 with duration of 4 years.

The project partners aim to jointly design, develop, deploy, test and monitor innovative measures, smart technologies and hybrid nature-based solutions to address climate change-related problems in coastal areas such as sea level rise and extreme events. Each of the ten live labs in coastal towns will handle a specific problem caused by climate change.

Using shower water to flush the toilet

Piran, for its part, will focus on finding solutions to reduce the waste of drinkable water and develop an early warning system for extreme weather phenomena. Researchers from the Mediterranean Institute for Environmental Studies which is part of ZRC and Piran residents will examine ways of reducing the use of drinking water for flushing the toilet.

Research shows that an adult EU citizen flushes the toilet five times a day on average. Thus, five to ten litres of drinkable water go down the drain every day.

Additionally, 45 to 75 litres of water is used when taking a shower or bath. The researchers intend to design a simple system to “catch” this water and redirect it for flushing the toilet.

Early warning system for floods and storms

As part of the project, researchers will also develop a system based on advanced technologies capable of detecting in advance floods, storms and erosion, and warning the population about extreme events. To this end, researchers will create a digital prototype of Piran. This will allow them to simulate the impact of extreme weather phenomena on the twin town, test the early alert system, draft evacuation plans and preventive measures.

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