Florence Urban Living Lab

ULL Florence is committed to expanding green infrastructure to improve climate-change adaptation, addressing challenges such as urban heat islands and extreme weather events. This work is particularly demanding in Florence due to the constraints of historic city centre and the insufficient amount of greenery in new public-space designs. The ULL coordinates extensive digital survey activities to document urban morphology and existing greenery, using established methods as well as UAV- and street-view-based acquisition. These outputs support the creation of detailed 3D tree representations for environmental modelling and simulations. ULL Florence also supports linking tree parameters with environmental responses, particularly heat stress, based on data from digital tree inventories.

Project Partners

University of Florence

Research

Large research university actively engaged in international, interdisciplinary research. Its Department of Architecture is a leading centre with extensive experience in complex survey activities using terrestrial laser scanning, photogrammetry and other tools across diverse urban and climatic contexts. The department has refined workflows for 3D surveys of green areas and urban environments, creating detailed 3D databases on morphology and green systems, and developing interactive digital environments for dissemination. It operates numerous specialised labs such as DARWIN, which are highly relevant to representation, visualisation and digitisation of architecture and landscape.

Florence Municipality

Municipality

Manages an extensive urban tree heritage facing significant climate-related challenges such as urban heat islands and extreme weather events. The city is committed to developing deeper knowledge of urban green systems and innovative greenery planning solutions, especially in historic central areas where space is limited. The municipality pursues systematic management of its green areas through digital tools and platforms. Florence Municipality supports analysis of greenery management models, provides data for strategic sample areas, advises survey and modelling tasks and contributes to situational analysis, digital platform development and dissemination.

Metaheritage Srl

Company

Digital design studio specialising in “Virtual Heritage”, promoting and disseminating cultural heritage through new technologies. Its multidisciplinary team is skilled in photogrammetric documentation, 3D model reproduction and dynamic virtual scenario creation, using advanced tools such as drones, underwater drones and body scanners. The company has worked on numerous virtual reconstructions and is active in research and innovation projects that combine digital dissemination with participation. They contribute to addressing the complex interactions between urban greenery, spatial conditions and historical heritage.

Researchers Involved

Sandro Parrinello

University of Florence

Full Professor and architect, is an expert in urban digital surveys and management of 3D databases for complex documentation systems. He has extensive experience in 3D survey and modelling of historic parks and urban greenery, as well as coordinating international research projects. As Scientific Director of the DARWIN Lab, he leads architectural survey programmes of complex green systems and the creation of documentary archives for their valorisation.