Mission
The mission of the Kassandra Project is to strengthen urban resilience to climate change by transforming scientific knowledge into actionable decisions.
In practice, Kassandra aims to:
- Measure and improve resilience, rather than merely assessing risk, by focusing on how cities, systems, and communities can adapt and recover from climate-related shocks.
- Support evidence-based decision-making through advanced modelling, simulation, and cost–benefit analysis of climate impacts and adaptation strategies.
- Bridge science, policy, and finance, enabling public authorities, insurers, and private actors to compare solutions (including nature-based solutions) and identify the most cost-effective and socially beneficial options.
- Anticipate future climate scenarios, integrating long-term impacts on health, infrastructure, ecosystems, and public and private costs to guide sustainable urban development.
Overall, Kassandra’s mission is forward-looking: to help cities and institutions plan today for a climate-resilient future, using robust data, transparent methods, and a systemic view of climate change impacts and responses.
Kassandra’s Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) work shows up mainly through risk-informed planning, scenario testing, and resilience-building interventions for cities, communities, heritage sites, and critical infrastructure.
1) Multi-hazard resilience assessment (evidence-based)
Kassandra runs studies that look at how places perform under current and future extreme events and climate-driven hazards—then maps where resilience is weak and where it can be strengthened. For example, its “Resilient Coastal Communities” work in the Caribbean explicitly addressed exposure to severe weather and other natural hazards (including volcanic and seismic).
2) Digital Twins + scenario simulation to reduce losses before they happen
A core DRR activity is building parametric Digital Twins and running “what-if” scenarios to surface vulnerabilities and test adaptation pathways before investing or building. This approach is used in projects like Ironbridge Gorge and Mount Stewart, where the Digital Twin consolidates data and supports scenarios highlighting vulnerabilities and adaptive pathways.
3) Decision support for resilient investments (including cost–benefit thinking)
Kassandra supports decision-makers in comparing interventions and choosing those that most improve resilience—explicitly linking predictions to “best interventions” and their costs/benefits (e.g., the Resilient Motorways study).
4) Co-production with local stakeholders (data + governance support)
Kassandra’s DRR practice includes working with local people and organizations for data collection, and with multi-disciplinary experts for analysis—so the resilience model reflects real conditions and supports implementable actions.
It also emphasizes managing climate resilience “in partnership with citizens and stakeholders.”
5) Resilient design / prototyping for the built environment
Beyond analytics, Kassandra has contributed to prototype resilient building design informed by IDSS outputs—aimed at structures capable of withstanding and adapting to multiple natural disasters.
6) DRR for heritage and culturally sensitive environments
Kassandra applies DRR-aligned resilience planning to UNESCO and historic environments, using data-driven climate simulations + planning to compare adaptation strategies and strengthen long-term resilience.
No results found.
Voluntary Commitments
The Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments (SFVC) online platform allows stakeholders to inform the public about their work on DRR. The SFVC online platform is a useful toolto know who is doing what and where for the implementation of the Sendai Framework, which could foster potential collaboration among stakeholders. All stakeholders (private sector, civil society organizations, academia, media, local governments, etc.) working on DRR can submit their commitments and report on their progress and deliverables.