Two hundred years of urban meteorology in the heart of Florence

The International Conference "Two hundred years of urban meteorology in the heart of Florence" held in Florence, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, on 25th and 26th of February 2013 was an occasion to join the scientific communities of historical climatologists along with the urban climatologists and meteorologists, in order to share methodologies and results to provide a common vision of the urban environment to allow the development of new instruments both theoretical and practical to planning our urban future. Humankind it is expected in few dozens of years to transform itself in a community of citizens in terms of persons living within the borders of cities or, better, megalopolis. Within these borders it will be a matter of facts that the concept of citizenship could assume a high relevant value if the expectations and wellness of the populations are respected, or a badly representing the animus of the people just only allow to live inside the city without dignity. Not only the social arrangement, or the political inclusion are issues of paramount importance in the frame to live together: the physical environment plays a crucial role in determining the conditions for the proper wellbeing perceived as a physiological optimum. This condition can be achieved bearing in mind the specific genius loci of the city itself and its development of the urban structure during the course of the years, of the centuries, along with the transformations of the land use as morphology and materials changes. The Conference allowed to deeply exchange information in order to built a common language between scientists of different disciplines and to understand the fundamental role of the urban observatories in monitoring the changes over hundred years collecting data that represent not only a diagnosis of the past but a tool to forecast our common future.