Citizen science approaches, which actively involve citizens in collecting environmental data and proposing urban solutions, are becoming key tools for identifying safe, pleasant urban corridors and pinpointing areas in need of intervention by local authorities, particularly in response to increasing thermal stress and urban pollution. Climate and sound walks, along with mobile applications for citizens to assess urban environments, are prime examples of tools that allow residents to observe the city from their perspective.

These methods provide fresh insights for decision-makers and challenge the limitations of top-down planning based solely on physical environmental data. Additionally, these approaches recognize the multisensory nature of human experience, evolving from individual analyses (such as sound or climate walks) to a more comprehensive understanding that highlights interactions and trade-offs faced by citizens in environments with multiple simultaneous sensory stimuli, known as sensory walks.

Sensing Trento is envisioned as a day of collective discussion, using the city of Trento as a testbed for multisensory and participatory approaches to urban experience during the summer period. The event will provide both a physical and sensory characterization of the city. The day will feature a public sensory walk, during which environmental data will be monitored along a predefined route. At the same time, participants simultaneously collect subjective data regarding their perception and evaluation of visual, thermal, sound, and olfactory landscapes along the way.

Following the walk, a roundtable discussion will provide an opportunity to share experiences, research, and tools for urban planning and design based on multisensory approaches. The discussion will bring together national and international experts, citizens, and policymakers. The roundtable will be open to the public and held in a hybrid format, ensuring broad participation. 

Program

14.00 – 16.00 Sensory walk in Trento
Meeting point at the entrance of the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Via Verdi 26, 38122, Trento.

16.00 – 16.30 Refreshments
Aula Kessler, Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca sociale, Università di Trento, via Verdi 26, 38122 Trento

16.30 – 16.35 Opening
Rossano Albatici, Director of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering (DICAM) - University of Trento 

16.35 – 16.50 Living Cities in a Changing Climate: Thermal Experiences and Their Impact on Pedestrian Satisfaction
Giulia Lamberti, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Energy, Systems, Territory, and Constructions (DESTEC), University of Pisa

16.50 – 17.05 Exploring Outdoor Air Quality through a Smellscape Approach
Giulia Torriani, PhD candidate at the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering (DICAM) - University of Trento and Institute for Renewable Energy, EURAC Research

17.05 – 17.20 Collecting Urban Soundscapes Across the World
Tin Oberman, Senior Research Fellow, Bartlett Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, University College London (UK)

17.20 – 17.35 Listening to the urban landscape
Sara Favargiotti, Associate Professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering (DICAM) - University of Trento

17.35 – 17.50 Odor Regulation and Perception in Rural and Urban Settings
Luca Adami, Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering (DICAM) - University of Trento

17.50 – 18.05 Multisensory aspects in the perception of the urban environment
Massimiliano Zampini, Full Professor at the Center for Mind/Brain Science (CIMeC), University of Trento

18.05 – 18.30 Q&A and closing remarks
Sara Lenzi, Senior Researcher (Assistant Professor), Universidad de Deusto and Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao (Spain)
Gianluca Maracchini, Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering (DICAM) - University of Trento

Registration

The event is free to attend. Registration for the sensory walk and the seminar is mandatory.

Participants in the walk will receive compensation for the time dedicated to the initiative, with a maximum of 40 participants allowed.

The seminar will also be live streamed. The participation link will be sent to the registered email the day before the event upon request.

Bios

Luca Adami completed his PhD in Environmental Engineering in 2015, specializing in river morphodynamics through remote sensing analysis and modeling techniques. He subsequently broadened his research focus to include sustainable water management, circular economy, and circular ecology, with a particular emphasis on environmental impacts, especially in atmospheric and water systems. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Trento, where he teaches Fluid Mechanics and Environmental Sustainability.

Sara Favargiotti is an Associate Professor at the DICAM Department of the University of Trento, where she teaches architectural and landscape design. Her research explores the multiple identities of landscapes, addressing contemporary challenges through a regenerative approach, with a particular focus on fragile territories, emerging infrastructures, and adaptive dynamics. She currently coordinates the S-COOL project (CARIVERONA, 2024-2027) and R.E.C. Dentro la sfida del clima (Unicittà, 2024-2025) and is a member of the Management Committee of the European Network for the Integrative Approach of Urban Forestry (COST EU, 2024-2028). Since 2018, she has been a board member of IASLA, the Italian Scientific Society of Landscape Architecture, and since 2022, she has been a co-founder and scientific advisor of the innovative startup and benefit corporation RUMA S.r.l.

Tin Oberman is a soundscape researcher at University College London, Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, with a background in architecture, landscape and urban planning, and music. He received his PhD at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb in 2015. In 2018 he moved to London to work on improving the current noise management frameworks by adding perceptual information in an easy-to-quantify way. He is working with spatial audio, 360 video, and environmental measurements to improve the understanding of how people perceive built and natural environments. Tin is equally fond of data collection in the wild (which includes cities as well) and running laboratory experiments. He manages the immersive Audio Lab at UCL and is part of the Silenzi in Quota collective. Tin produces The Rest Is Just Noise podcast, for which he received a science communication award from the Acoustical Society of America.

Giulia Lamberti is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Energy, Systems, Territory, and Constructions (DESTEC) at the University of Pisa. In 2023, she defended her PhD thesis, focusing on thermal comfort and its influence on occupant perception, with a particular emphasis on school buildings. The same year, she began a Research Fellowship at the University of Paris-Est, investigating energy efficiency and comfort in Le Corbusier's historic buildings. Since 2024, she has started a research grant focused on predictive models for assessing urban environmental quality.

Giulia Torriani is a PhD candidate at the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering (DICAM) at the University of Trento (Italy), collaborating with the Institute for Renewable Energy at Eurac Research (Bolzano, Italy) and the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC) at the University of Trento (Italy). Her doctoral research, titled “From Neutrality to Dynamic and Multisensory Variability in Office Buildings: Rethinking Indoor Air Quality Comfort through Smellscape Modelling”, explores innovative approaches to indoor air quality (IAQ) design and management.

Massimiliano Zampini (born in 1970) is a Full Professor at CIMeC, Center for Mind/Brain Science University of Trento. He is also deputy coordinator of the Doctoral program in Cognitive and Brain Sciences. He got his PhD at the University of Verona (Italy) in 2002. Then, he has been Post-Doc Fellow at the University of Oxford (UK; 2002-2004). In 2005, he won a 4-year returning researcher grant from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research for working at Trento University. Prof. Zampini is the head of the Multisensory Research Group at CIMeC, which specializes in the research on how multisensory interactions modulate our perception of sensory events. He has published over 70 articles in international scientific journals.