Promoting Inclusion Through the Development and Application of a Multifunctional Wearable System for a Citizen-Oriented City: Overview of the UrbanSense Project

In the era of accelerated urbanization and rapid technological evolution, the creation of citizen-oriented cities represents an unprecedented challenge and op-portunity. This article introduces the UrbanSense project (2024–2025), funded in the frame of the RAISE Innovation ecosystem by the Italian PNRR and EU Next Generation programs, which addresses these challenges by focusing on creating citizen-oriented cities. The project places citizens at the center of urban development, ensuring their needs are respected and met through emerging tech-nologies to transform cities into more inclusive and sustainable environments. To this aim, the project combines interdisciplinary research, technological in-novation, and active community engagement. This happens by exploring citi-zens’ roles as moving sensors to improve urban sustainability and inclusion: using low-cost sensors, digital technologies, and citizen participation platforms, UrbanSense actively involves residents in collecting environmental data. This data informs policy decisions, guides urban interventions, and fosters more aware and resilient communities. The main project’s component is a multifunctional wearable device designed to be comfortable and lightweight, allowing for the effective and non-invasive collection of indoor and outdoor environmental data, which will be integrated with those from social and economic surveys. The wearable system facilitates the active participation of citizens as mobile sensors and their involvement through on-site and online feedback. The wearable sys-tem undergoes rigorous calibration and validation to ensure accuracy and reliability. The collected data will be statistically analyzed to identify significant correlations and patterns between environmental variables and citizens’ subjective evaluations, ultimately supporting the creation of safer, more accessible, and welcoming urban spaces.