The fundamental prerequisite when assessing climate risk is a good baseline against which to measure change. Assimila is developing two major climate indices for a selection of European cities from downscaled ERA5-Land data augmented with long-term satellite records:

1. Urban Climate Index: a 20-year baseline urban climate index covering vegetation greenness indicators such as vegetation indices and Leaf Area Index, soil moisture and land cover. The derived climate index will provide a climatology and identification of extreme events that together with socio-economic data (e.g. health, income, demographic) will help assessing risk and inform planning decisions to tackle effects of climate change.
2. Ecological Integrity Index: exploiting long term observations from Landsat and Sentinel 2, Assimila will develop an index that characterizes the evolution and dynamics of green versus built-up areas.