Urban runoff is one of the invisible problems that affects us all. Every time it rains, water flowing through city streets and industrial areas picks up a variety of pollutants, from heavy metals to pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and other emerging pollutants.
These substances are transported into rivers and streams, silently impairing water quality, threatening ecosystems, and posing risks to public health.
D4RUNOFF combines science, technology, and public engagement to develop new frameworks to better understand and manage runoff in urban environments.
Smart digital platform for cities
At the heart of the project is an AI-assisted digital platform. Designed as a decision support system, this tool aims to fill two major gaps in current urban runoff management.
Technology gap: Provides advanced methods to monitor, analyze, and predict runoff pollution in real time. Governance and decision-making gaps: Provide both technical experts and policy makers with practical information and tools to plan more effective interventions.
What makes this platform especially valuable is its versatility. AI-assisted digital tools address urban runoff management challenges through a multidisciplinary approach. It is built for a wide range of stakeholders, from engineers and scientists to policy makers and the public, and provides customized functionality through four interconnected modules.
Operations and Strategy Module: Leverage AI to help select, design, and evaluate nature-based solutions (NBS). Risk Assessment Module: Identify contamination risks and assess the feasibility of interventions. Policy module: Provides evidence to guide NBS implementation and monitoring of emerging pollutants, supporting urban planning and regional pilot management plans. Social module: Raise awareness of run-off issues through engaging tools such as a serious game and introduce NBS.
In the long term, the platform aims to support better decision-making, improve how cities manage runoff, and reduce pollution by encouraging the adoption of NBS.
Play and learn: D4RUNOFF Serious competition
Perhaps the most appealing feature of the digital platform is its serious gaming. This interactive tool puts players in the shoes of urban planners and challenges them to make cities safer and more sustainable.
Players are given the responsibility of managing spills in real test cities such as Santander (Spain), Odense (Denmark), and Pontedera (Italy). With limited budget and labor, you must choose carefully where to place your rain garden. Should I install a green roof? How does permeable pavement affect flooding?
Each decision is important. By placing different NBSs in designated “action zones,” players see how their strategies affect rainwater quantity and quality, as well as how they improve the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants. Beyond entertainment, serious games have a clear educational purpose. It provides an immersive, risk-free learning environment where players discover how cities can adapt to climate change through green infrastructure.
Are you keen to play? Check out our short guide and become your next urban planner.
Shape the future together
Our message is simple. Building safer, climate-resilient cities depends on the choices we make today.
By combining cutting-edge research, artificial intelligence and interactive learning, this project will enable everyone to contribute to designing a greener future.
And thanks to this innovative serious game, that future is more than just theory. It allows you to explore, test, and shape one decision at a time.
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