2023 was the warmest year on record. And increasingly, it appears that no matter what we do to reduce carbon, we will have to learn to live with warmer temperatures. In the southern tip of Europe - where empires that changed the world have risen and fallen - one solution could lie in the deep past.
RAZOR's Reya El-Salahi meets Alexander Valentino from the Cool City Project, who wants to use a network of ancient canals and aqueducts that lie beneath Naples to cool the city during hot summers.
He explains how his team maps the tunnels and caverns underneath - some which are more than 2,000 years old - and reveals how the water and cold air underground can be brought back up to the surface, and especially combat the effects of urban heat islands.
Valentino is collaborating with the local water authority, Acqua Bene Comune Napoli, which supervises the underground inspections and has an established history of repurposing ancient infrastructure for modern use - like utilising Roman-era tuff rock mines in the city's water supply network.
26 сен 2024
