The meeting hosted at the Department of GeoSciences, University of Padua (Italy), on 12-13 April 2018 marked the beginning of the GEO4CIVHIC EU project. All 19 project partners, among which the Italian National Research Council – Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Project coordinator, and UNESCO through its Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe joined Daniel Marave De Lemus, EC Project Officer, to present the project and discuss about the work, objectives and expected outputs.

GEO4CIVHIC Project kicks off in Italy with UNESCO as partner

The project, titled ‘Most Easy, Efficient and Low Cost Geothermal Systems for Retrofitting Civil and Historical Buildings – GEO4CIVHIC’, aims at applying a pan-European and innovative shallow geothermal solutions particularly targeting historical buildings, including UNESCO designated sites.

Solutions will be put in place by considering a multi-criteria approach based on building typologies, climatic and hydro-geological settings, featuring the geothermal system – such as drilling methodology, Ground Source Heat exchangers and grouting. All will be tailored according to the requirements driven by beneficiary sites and their urban context.

With the support of the management authorities, UNESCO will supervise the implementation of the real demonstration component adapted to the World Heritage site of Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta in Italy, while a full feasibility study is foreseen in a World heritage property in Croatia.
UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe has a long interdisciplinary work experience in sustainable energy applied to both capacity building, through dedicated trainings and the elaboration and the implementation of geothermal power system in built heritage, including museums.