(Ph. Jan Martin Will)

There was a time when our climatic references seemed fixed: we used to design and plan our territory thinking that we would fit into an environment with constant characteristics.

The last five decades have made us change our minds: not only are today’s climatic parameters significantly different from those of fifty years ago (in terms of thermometric averages and extremes, frequency and intensity of atmospheric phenomena), but we do not know how much more they may change in the future.

It is no wonder, then, that whenever we study projects, technologies, solutions, interventions on the territory, attention to the interference between our work and the local climate becomes a primary factor.

And in both directions: how our action can act in changing the climate and how the climate acts towards us.

Hence, in many of the works, theoretical or realized, that we discuss in the Tsport 361 issue’s special report on sports and urban green, the theme of resilience to climate change or actions that can mitigate its effects returns.

If primitive man’s first need was to defend himself against the weather, and over time he had almost forgotten this priority, convinced that he now had his own fate as an inhabitant of the earth in his hands, the new century is once again in search of a balance between us and the atmosphere. Fighting summer heat, defending against flash floods and long droughts, preventing excesses with appropriate surface treatment, are the starting points of every project.

Remember, however, that at the basis of every action there must be an exact knowledge of the phenomena: the aspects of the climate, the ways in which the atmospheric elements act and transform, must be well understood in order to be able to make suitable choices that will not turn out to be useless or counterproductive tomorrow. Do not stop at the generic information disseminated by the media, but delve deeper. Whether designing surfaces for sport or for the city.