Beatriz Eguzkitza is a researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), specializing in pulmonary dynamics and respiratory biomechanics, and the coordinator of the HARMONIE project. Drawing on her background in numerical methods and respiratory mechanics, she works at the intersection of advanced computational modelling, environmental science and health, helping to bridge the gap between complex environmental simulations and their real-world impact on public health.
What’s the story behind HARMONIE? How did the project come together?
The project came together from a clear necessity: urban planning and public health have traditionally operated in silos. Cities collect large amounts of environmental and health data, but these are rarely integrated into a single framework that can support decision-making.
At the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, we have advanced tools to simulate complex environments, but we wanted to use this computational power to directly serve people. We realized that by combining computational fluid dynamics, environmental sensors, and citizen science, we could build a dynamic tool to help cities visualize the invisible threats affecting their habitants and test solutions before implementing them.
HARMONIE grew from the idea that understanding pollution levels is not enough: we also need to understand who is exposed, how that exposure affects health, and how citizens may respond to the measures designed to reduce it. Bringing these different dimensions together allows us to move from simply describing urban pollution to helping cities make more informed decisions about how to tackle it.
What do you think is the most innovative aspect of HARMONIE?
One of HARMONIE’s key innovations is that it goes beyond traditional air quality monitoring. The project measures emerging pollutants and environmental indicators that are not usually included in routine monitoring, and combines this information with advanced exposure assessment, health impact modelling and digital twin technologies. This integrated approach allows cities not only to understand pollution levels, but also to explore how different interventions could improve public health.
The core innovation is our Citizen-Centric Digital Twin (CCDT) framework coupled with advanced health biomarkers. Instead of just measuring standard air quality metrics, we are mapping Black Carbon (BC), Ultrafine Particles (UFP), and Oxidative Potential (OP). By combining experimental data with computational models to analyze the oxidative stress in ambient air and even in exhaled air (OPEA), we can better understand the biological impact that traffic emissions and other pollutants may have on the lungs.
The real power of HARMONIE comes from connecting these two worlds and turning this knowledge into practical tools for cities. On one side, we have the real city, continuously generating environmental, behavioural and health-related information. On the other, we have the digital representations of the city and the lung, transforming that information into knowledge. Throughout the project, these two dimensions continuously feed each other.
How do you expect HARMONIE to benefit cities and citizens in the future?
HARMONIE aims to provide cities with practical tools to make better-informed decisions. One of the most exciting aspects of the project is the ability to explore what-if scenarios. It allows local governments to compare different urban interventions—like changing traffic flows—and see their direct impact on air quality and therefore public health before spending public funds.
For citizens, it provides transparent data and a direct platform to make better decisions based on science, ensuring that, above all, we prioritize people’s health—especially that of the most vulnerable. Because, after all, sooner or later, vulnerability is something that will touch every single one of us.
The very name of our project, HARMONIE, stands for Health-centric Air quality and Noise Management for Smarter Cities. Beyond the technical acronym, my ultimate hope is that these tools will help cities find a true balance—a way to manage noise and pollution so that science, urban development, and human well-being can truly coexist in harmony.
What does success look like for the people living in cities, not just for the science?
For citizens, success is about experiencing a tangible improvement in their daily lives.
We all know that cities need traffic, logistics, and construction to function and serve society. Success is about finding a practical “harmony”, where the city provides all these essential services while ensuring we pay the lowest possible price in terms of health and the environment.
It looks like using our tools to optimize urban design so that vital city operations continue, but noise and pollution levels are reduced so people can walk peacefully and breathe cleaner air. Ultimately, success is not about stopping the city, but about minimizing its negative impacts on people’s daily lives. It means that the scientific evidence we generate is quietly integrated into city design, creating healthier, fairer streets.
How do you hope the tools developed in HARMONIE will support cities after the project ends?
We are validating our methodologies in five diverse European pilots: Barcelona, Lausanne, Gävle, Sarajevo, and Barakaldo. Our goal is to create scalable, transferable, and accessible resources. When the project ends, we expect these tools to remain active assets for these municipalities and serve as a blueprint that any other European city can adopt to implement resilient, health-focused, and citizen-centered urban planning.
For that to happen, it is important that the tools do not remain isolated research outputs. We want them to be integrated, whenever possible, into the platforms and data infrastructures that cities already use, and to give local teams the knowledge they need to continue using and adapting them.
Ultimately, the ambition is for the experience gained in the pilot cities to travel beyond them. HARMONIE is not about creating one solution that works only in one urban context, but about developing methodologies and tools that can be adapted to cities with very different sizes, resources and pollution challenges. If we succeed, the five pilots will not be the end point of HARMONIE, but the starting point for wider replication across Europe.
HARMONIE Voices: Watch the interview
Want to hear more from Beatriz? Watch this HARMONIE Voices video, where she shares some of the key ideas and ambitions behind the HARMONIE project.
