The article 'How are cities planning to respond to climate change? Assessment of local climate plans from 885 cities in the EU-28', published in 2018 in the Journal of Cleaner Production. Assessment of local climate plans from 885 cities in the EU-28', published in 2018 in the Journal of Cleaner Production, has been awarded the award de knowledge dissemination Científica José María Sarriegi 2019, which is awarded by the Catastrophe Observatory of the Aon Spain Foundation.

Thirty European researchers from different climate change research institutions have joined forces to analyse the local climate action plans of 885 European cities in the 28 countries of the European Union. In the conclusions, they state that "progress is concentrated in large cities and also in northern Europe. 66% of cities have a mitigation and/or an adaptation plan. Only half of the cities are preparing for the impacts of climate change".

Marta Olazabal, co-author of the article, received the award, worth 1,000 €, from Pedro Tomey, President of the Disaster Observatory, and Rául Antón, Director of the School of Engineers Tecnun of the University of Navarra, during the Symposium on Climate Change of the Disaster Observatory of the Aon España Foundation, which was held on November 7 at the Campus Graduate School in Madrid of the University of Navarra. The researcher declared that receiving this award is "a great honor for being the first to receive the award José María Sarriegi and a great satisfaction for having participated in a work of this caliber. The team of researchers has expanded and we continue to work to analyze these policies in greater depth. This award financial aid motivates us to continue our efforts".

The Jury of the award, composed of representatives of Tecnun and the Chair of Catastrophes of the Aon Foundation Spain, after analyzing the candidatures presented, has unanimously decided to distinguish this article because it makes an exhaustive study of the plans for mitigation and adaptation to climate change that exist in European cities. The article classifies the plans into three types according to their nature and provides very interesting statistics that can serve as a starting point for future research in this field. The prestige of the journal in which the article has been published has also been taken into account, since the Journal of Cleaner Production has an impact index of 6,395 and is indexed in the first quartile of the JCR index (Journal of Citation Report).

Pedro Tomey declared that "at the Aon Foundation and our Observatory we are confident that this award will undoubtedly contribute to stimulate and strengthen the progress of research in the field of catastrophes to which Sarriegi, one of the founders of the Observatory, was devoted".

award of knowledge dissemination Scientific José María Sarriegi

The Aon Spain Foundation and its Disaster Observatory, with the creation of the award de knowledge dissemination Científica José María Sarriegi to the best article of academic research on disaster-related topics, aim to honor the report of the academic and researcher of Tecnun, one of the founders of the Observatory, who passed away in December 2018 as a result of a sports accident.

José María Sarriegi, professor and PhD industrial engineer from Tecnun, was Deputy Director researcher at this School of Engineering of the University of Navarra since 2016. He was researcher principal in European, national and regional projects and during 24 years his teaching work extended to fields such as computer science, information systems, modeling and simulation, management of knowledge and development of projects. He was supervisor of more than 350 final projects Degree, master and career projects. The last of them, within the Chair of Catastrophes of the Aon Foundation and together with Professor Leire Labaka, was the doctoral dissertation of Patricia Maraña, on the resilience of cities in crisis situations, in which she analyzed the systems of public-private collaboration in five cities around the world to prevent and respond to catastrophic situations.

This award , which from now on will bear Sarri's name, represents very well the professional and personal values treasured by this exceptional teacher of engineers. His example of integrity, enthusiasm, professionalism and human category are and will be an example for many students and teachers. José María Sarriegi used to say that we can always emerge stronger from catastrophes.