COSMA is a multidisciplinary study that will bring together a group of experts in urban meteorology, building environmental engineering, architecture, urban planning and social science, to work with local stakeholders to understand the overheating risk in the urban area of Colombo. This project is funded by NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) in the UK.

At the heart of the project are the studies of:

• how the heatwave overheating risk prediction and assessment could be improved at finer urban and building scales
• the useful indigenous design knowledge in Sri Lanka for heatwaves mitigtion, and
• how the designs could be regenerated and re-incorporated into the heatwave action plan and future design practice

COSMA aims to develop an integrated modelling approach by taking into account the urban heat island, building characteristics and vulnerable population to build effective early-warning systems and a city-scale heat action plan. The final outputs of the project will be a series of hierarchical overheating risk and mitigation potential maps across different scales for Colombo, Sri Lanka.

COSMA is a multidisciplinary study that will bring together a group of experts in urban meteorology, building environmental engineering, architecture, urban planning and social science, to work with local stakeholders to deliver SHEAR programme objectives. By working closely with the local community, government and professionals, one important goal of COSMA project is to harvest and regenerate traditional design knowledge (both building and urban scales) from indigenous craftsmen embedded within local culture and traditions, and feed into the heat-exposure risk mitigation plan.

COSMA, led by the University of Reading (UoR), involves collaborations with Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), and carried out in partnership with a group of well-established Sri Lankan partners: the Department of Meteorology (DoM) and the Institute of Town Planners Sri Lanka(ITPSL) as well as researchers at University of Moratuwa (UoM).