Looper project - Living Labs - Verona

Verona

Location

The Verona Looper Living Lab was located in the area of Verona Sud, neighbourhood of the city of Verona. The area is delimited by the A4 highway to the south, by the A22 highway on the west side and by a high traffic street on the east side. The train line defines the area on the north side, and divides the neighbourhood from the city centre. The area of Verona Sud is both residential and industrial. Here is located the Z.A.I. (Industrial Agricultural Zone) and the Exhibit (VeronaFiere).

Problem

The Verona Looper Living Lab was located in the area of Verona Sud and worked on issues of air and noise pollution. The Verona Looper Living Lab implemented two loops of the Looper co-creation process, and throughout the whole process different stakeholders were involved, and they worked together to find the best possible solutions to be implemented.

Location of the Verona Looper Living Lab

Process

During the first loop the scoping of issue activity located the criticalities as perceived by participants. A data collection about air quality and noise pollution levels was therefore undertaken in the area to better identify criticalities. Different tools were used i.e. official sensors for air quality, low cost sensors for air quality and noise pollution, geotagging tool surveys and interviews for qualitative data. The results from the data collection campaign were visualised during a Looper Living Lab meeting, and based on these information possible mitigation solutions were proposed. All stakeholders together evaluated the co-designed ideas by also using the MAMCA tool. The solutions with the highest approval by all stakeholders were implemented i.e. street closure, crosswalk island and 30km/h zone in front of a school. The monitoring campaign done after the implementation of the solutions showed that such small localised implementations did not give the expected benefits to the area.

For the second loop, thanks to the knowledge acquired during the first loop, participants decided to keep on working on the same issues but with a different approach. Longer term solutions were chosen and, among all, the most succesful one was the implementation of the design of the expansion of the Parco Santa Teresa that has been endorsed by the Commune di Verona.

Moreover, participants expressed their interest in working with the Looper co-creation process even after the end of the project to implement other long term solutions.

Relevant links and deliverables: