Interreg Italy - Croatia project
Official SMART GUARD project web page
SMART GUARD addresses two interconnected territorial challenges compromising climate resilience across the Italy-Croatia cooperation area: insufficient climate monitoring systems and fragmented civil protection coordination. Current monitoring systems operate in isolation, creating information silos that prevent comprehensive risk assessment, while the absence of standardised methodologies and harmonised data collection protocols limits climate risk management effectiveness. Simultaneously, fragmented civil protection systems lack standardised procedures and interoperable communication systems, creating barriers to effective cross-border collaboration between Italian and Croatian emergency services, local authorities, and community-based organisations during climate emergencies.
SMART GUARD overall objective is to develop and implement integrated digital solutions for environmental risk management in the Italy-Croatia cooperation area, focusing on wildfire and urban heat island risk monitoring. The project aims to provide emergency professionals and citizens with actionable climate risk information through pilot actions, community and youth engagement, training programmes and cross-border simulation exercises to strengthen emergency response and cross- border resilience. The expected changes include transforming reactive emergency response approaches into proactive, data-driven climate risk management systems whilst establishing sustainable cross-border institutional cooperation frameworks.
The project main outputs are jointly developed digital solutions for intelligent multi-risk monitoring, vulnerability registry and community support systems strategy and cross-border climate risk management strategy with operational protocols. The main beneficiaries are local authorities who will benefit from enhanced capabilities for climate risk management and coordinated emergency response protocols, emergency professionals and civil protection services who will gain access to real-time environmental data and joint training programmes, and citizens who will receive proactive climate risk information and participate in community-based risk management initiatives. No less important is the introduction of “Digital Rangers” programme which involves a group of 100 young volunteers aged 16-25 who will serve as environmental guardians, equipped with environmental monitoring competencies and emergency management knowledge gained through residential training camps alternating between Italy and Croatia.
Cross-border cooperation between Italy and Croatia represents an essential component of SMART GUARD, providing fundamental added value that cannot be achieved through individual national approaches. Environmental challenges such as wildfire risks and urban heat island effects extend beyond administrative borders, requiring shared risk assessment methodologies and coordinated prevention strategies. Individual national approaches would result in duplicated efforts and incompatible data collection systems, preventing comprehensive risk assessment capabilities. Cross- border cooperation enables standardised risk assessment methodologies and optimal utilisation of financial resources and technical expertise.
SMART GUARD proposes an integrated cross-border digital ecosystem representing a paradigm shift from traditional fragmented emergency response approaches to a unified, proactive climate risk management system. The main innovation is the development of a jointly operated digital platform simultaneously monitoring multiple environmental risks across administrative borders. This AI- powered system integrates real-time data from IoT sensors, weather stations, and thermal drones strategically placed in different pilot sites across the cross-border area, to generate predictive analytics for wildfire risk assessment and urban heat island monitoring. Unlike existing monitoring systems operating in isolation within national frameworks, this platform creates a unified cross- border information ecosystem enabling coordinated risk assessment and response strategies. Another important innovation is the introduction of pilot operational support centres functioning according to graduated activation protocols, transforming from information points during normal conditions to comprehensive emergency response centres and climate shelters for vulnerable citizens during climate emergencies.