Groundbreaking Innovation Project Transformed Urban Planning with Digital Twins, Making Cities More Age-Friendly and Sustainable

After three exciting years, the URBANAGE project funded by the European Commission comes to an end with the publication of its main findings, solutions and lessons learned.

The project aimed to improve the quality of life and well-being of older people living in urban areas. This was achieved by creating and promoting age-friendly solutions with the final goal of creating more inclusive, more resilient, age-friendly cities. During its lifetime, URBANAGE also focused on raising awareness on the importance of involving citizens, especially older citizens, in urban planning. The project has found that considering this demographic when making urban planning decisions not only creates better cities, but also happier citizens.

The project involved 11 partners from 6 European countries, as well as a network of experts, stakeholders, and older people themselves. The project outcomes included:
• Urban planning: The URBANAGE Ecosystem Platform provides a range of tools and services which help urban planners, local authorities and older people act now, and make better evidence-based planning, operational decisions, and longer-term policy choices. The final goal was to create more liveable, accessible, and inclusive age-friendly cities that suit all the residents.
• Age-friendly Solutions: URBANAGE was piloted in the Flanders Region (Belgium), Helsinki (Finland), and Santander (Spain). All the pilots recognised the importance of translating the needs of the citizen into data and then into solutions. The cities aimed at increasing the benefits to older people.
• Older people engagement: URBANAGE realized the importance of including older people in decision-making processes and it was a strong promotor of this idea.

Some of the main achievements and highlights of the project include:
• Creating a set of tools that will improve the lives of older people.
• Empowering older people to have a voice and a role in shaping their urban environments and influencing decision-making processes.
• Enhancing the accessibility, safety, and usability of urban spaces and services for older people and other vulnerable groups.
• Increasing the awareness and importance of creating age-friendly policies and practices among policymakers, and researchers at different levels.

Roberto di Bernado, Project Coordinator of URBANAGE, shared his enthusiasm about the URBANAGE project, " I am grateful and sad at the same time that URBANAGE came to an end. Grateful because it's been an incredible three-year journey, with a lot of impact and sad that it ended. The URBANAGE consortium found solutions and overcame all the difficult moments and at the same time, it created an impact and left its mark on the future of urban planning. I would like to send my deepest gratitude to all the members of this brilliant consortium, EC, wider networks, experts, stakeholders, and older people who have been involved and supported us along the way. We hope that our project will inspire and inform other cities and communities that want to become more age-friendly and inclusive for all."

All the URBANAGE results are available on the project website www.urbanage.eu

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This release was published on openPR.