The Municipality of Chania is looking for four other European cities, or Partner Cities interested in discovering and learning from their experience as part of VARCITIES’ City-to-City Exchange! Located on the Greek island of Crete, the Municipality of Chania is developing with the support of VARCITIES two Visionary Solutions:

• Visionary Solution 1: A mobile urban living room is a flexible multifunctional construction, which will be set up in different areas of the city. Its goal is to redefine citizens’ relationship with public space and nature. Acting as a meeting point, MULαR will encourage citizens to engage in various social and cultural activities, increasing the green spaces’ value.
• Visionary Solution 2 will support the installation of sensor kits on both public and private bicycles. Public bicycle stations will also be equipped to measure pollutants (PMx, noise, humidity etc.). Data will be combined with health measurements from the bicycles’ smart grips (oxymeter) and will be enriched with data from weather station, bike sharing systems usage, questionnaires, apps and from statistical services and observatories

Specifically, Chania has identified three challenges that VARCITIES is addressing:

• Lack / low number of visitors in the public green spaces of the city
• Degradation of air quality and high level of noise pollution due to car traffic, especially exacerbated during high season
• Lack of available and geotagged data related to health in the city

The two Visionary Solutions are the key solutions that VARCITIES will support to address these challenges.

Discover more about Chania’s pilot on their Pilot Page: https://varcities.eu/pilot-cities/chania-greece/  

Chania’s Partner Cities should share similar challenges and conditions (non-cumulative criteria) and be located in the EU:

• Chania is located on the Greek island of Crete, characterized by a Mediterranean climate: hot dry summers and humid, cool winters
• Chania is a coastal city with a high influx of tourists all year round, with an especially busy summer season, leading to traffic congestion related issues (air quality, noise, etc.)
• Chania is facing challenges related to the use and access of public green spaces, low air quality, noise issues, and the need to better track health related data

Are you interested in discovering Chania’s experience in VARCITIES?  Is your city facing similar challenges?  Do you also want to better track health related data in your city using new IT technologies?

The selection process for the four Partner Cities of the Municipality of Chania will last until October 2023.  The City-to-City Exchange is expected to start in the first months 2024.

For any enquiries, contact us at contact@varcities.eu

About VARCITIES City-to-City Exchange

To support the replication of VARCITIES approach, each of the seven Pilot Cities engages with four other Partner Cities in City-to-City Exchange to promote and upscale their Visionary Solutions, exchange on common challenges, barriers and experiences. Notably, the City-to-City Exchange aims to cover issues linked with stakeholder engagement, governance, replication, IT solutions and inclusivity.  Through  cross-learning, the 4 Partner Cities will participate in an online knowledge exchange with one of the Pilot Cities, supported by VARCITIES’ team, which may also be complemented by site visits. Partner Cities will be invited to join the Healthy Cities Helix, and future collaboration supported by European funding programmes will be explored.