Dear reader,

welcome to the first newsletter of The HuT!

The Hut is a project that looks for effective strategies to manage the risks associated with extreme climate events. It aims to promote a set of trans-disciplinary risk management tools and approaches that could be adapted across different territorial contexts and hazards.

In this newsletter you will find the latest updates of the project. You will read about the activities of this first year discussed in Valencia in the last general assembly and, in particular, you will dive into some of the activities related to the cooperation of science and art. The HuT also participated to several events such as Creative Effective Warnings for All conference and other clusters events such as CERIS in Brussels.

Have a good reading and follow us on social media!

The HuT project aims to integrate and leverage best practices and successful multi-disciplinary experiences in disaster risk reduction to deal with extreme climate events. The project’s main ambition is to promote the “best set” of trans-disciplinary risk management tools and approaches that could be adopted and used extensively across Europe. The activities of the project are being developed considering the following critical dimensions: trans-disciplinarity, co-production, cross-fertilization, transferability, and long-term legacy.  

The HuT project is structured across 7 work packages, which facilitate the delivery and cross-fertilization of outcomes achieved across 10 demonstrators. The demonstrators are characterized by different geomorphological features and socio-economic conditions and are affected by multiple extreme climate events. Learn more about our demonstrators on our project webpage (https://thehut-nexus.eu/territories/).

In October 2023, the HuT project consortium met at the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain) for the ‘end-of-year-one’ annual meeting. This was an opportunity to discuss the progress and re-affirm the shared vision for the project’s outcomes.

The work of the different demonstrators was illustratively outlined by Giedre Godiene (phD, Landscape geographer, Assistant Professor at Vilnius University, Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences). Another important event organized during this gathering, was the first edition of the International DRR Nexus Forum (I-DRRnF) Workshop entitled “Co-creating inclusive disaster risk reduction strategies”. 

To read more about the general assembly and its activities, click here.

Art is now a recognized linkage between science and society. Art and culture are at the heart of climate action, as stated at COP28 by the newly established high-level “Group of Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action”. In The HuT project, we are using the potential of art to engage with local communities about their experiences of extreme weather.  

The HuT project has undertaken two exciting science-art interventions within its first year:

1. "Staging EWS Stories"- how Playback Theatre and The HuT scientist elicit co-production of knowledge   

The HuT initiated a unique cooperation. Artists from Full Circle Playback Theatre and The HuT partners designed a performance called “Staging EWS Stories" at the European Climate Change Adaptation (ECCA) Conference in Dublin 2023. The performance was framed in a session providing background on scientific concepts for early warning systems (EWS). The Playback Theatre elicited personal stories from the audience that were improvised and enacted by actors and musicians on the spot. Stories related to the EWS and our non-/preparedness for disasters were performed, enabling the participants and scientists to reflect on inter- and intra-personal aspects of the human responses to EWS. 

The ECCA performance was followed by three online performances by The Full Circle Playback Theatre. They were open to broader international audiences, including climate change activists, citizens, scientists and artists. Diverse stories were shared, including those of fear, despair and frustration which were balanced with stories of personal responsibility, personal transformation and stories calling for common action.

Stories held implicit knowledge, which was uncovered by sharing personal stories in public spaces and by the artistic enactments. Both scientists and artists learned a lot in this transdisciplinary process. Artists felt empowered to use their art to support communities in societal transformation which is needed for better disaster preparedness. Read more about this science-art cooperation here.

2. "Welcome to 2050" at The HuT General Assembly in Valencia (2023)   

During the HuT Projects General Assembly in Valencia, we connected its demonstrator and partner (University of Valencia, UPV) with its industrial design and product development department and co-curated together with senior lecturer and professor Chele Esteve an art-science project. The result, a walk-in greenhouse created by local artist Salva Mascarell with scientific findings pinned like street art and a huge watercolour inside, was installed in the Valencian Botanical Garden and open to the public until the end of January 2024.

“Welcome to 2050" leads the visitor into a landscape reminiscent of drought. With the feeling of being suffocated by humidity and heat, the viewer is presented with a canvas of a liquid blue landscape, symbolising water. It is painted on a very light-sensitive fabric that discolours when exposed to sunlight - the colour fades, “water is increasingly disappearing".

The aim was to get a very important message across to the citizens of Valencia: droughts and heatwaves will be the future of this city if they are not tackled.

This exhibition triggered a follow-up art installation called "Minimal Ecologies + Welcome to 2050. Adapt or succumb" produced by the Art and Environment Research Centre at UPV. This was provoked by the storm Ciarán in November 2023, an atypical extreme weather event for the region resulting in the destruction of the installation, Salva Mascarell together with artists from around the world and professors of the Art and Environment Research Centre, created a ready-made of "Welcome at 2050". Read more here.

The conference "Creating Effective Warnings for All" was organised in London, UK in September 2023 by the Warning Research Centre at University College London. It sought to summarise what we know about and what we ought to be doing regarding warnings, especially to assist with the United Nations' ambition to reach everyone with early warning systems by 2027.

Notable overall aspects highlighted for achieving effective warnings for all are:

Notable aspects requiring more emphasis are:

The HuT supports and contributes to all these areas. The 10 demonstrators of the HuT project will enable better understanding of specific, local needs in the development of early warning systems. This applies particularly to vulnerabilities. Each place has its own contextual livelihoods, economics, politics, and exclusion issues. Demonstrators can best indicate the people and populations who might be most difficult to be involved in warnings, as well as the timeframes required to involve them and what actions might be the most effective in improving the situation.

Our job within the HuT is to ensure cross-fertilization and transferability. What from Iceland's experience could work in Spain and vice versa? Where has Italy succeeded that could overcome barriers in Germany and vice versa? How might these answers evolve as the specific hazards studied are modified by climate change? In The HuT's study area of Sardinia, heat waves might be accompanied by vegetation fires, indicating lessons for the UK as the climate warms. In the UK, floods frequently lead to landslips across transportation and walking routes, with warnings averting casualties. This experience can assist Sardinia in adjusting to increasingly intense precipitation. 

All project deliverables are made available via the Project Deliverables webpage here. We also maintain a repository for long-term availability in ZENODO.

The HuT project is currently setting up 2 knowledge exchange Working Groups to further promote cross-fertilization and transferability of expertise. These are:

1. Weather and Climate Working Group. The first meeting of this group takes place in February 2024
2. Monitoring Working Group

We are currently developing a set of supporting fact sheets on topics pertinent to coping with climate extremes. The first of these will be released in the summer and will focus ‘Emergency Warning Services’ – We look forward to being able to share this with you!

We just published our first journalistic article about the science-art cooperation to tackle disaster risk reduction. Read more about this innovative approach that combines science and art directly from the words of the artists involved!

As the project grows and evolves, we will share publications and demonstrator-specific outputs and experiences through this regular newsletter. In the meanwhile, have a look at the introduction video of The HuT below!