City climate pilot
Background and Goals
The city climate pilot was developed as part of the "Urban climate change strategies: Local strategies and potential" project (KlimaExWoSt: Urban Climate).
Climate change is bringing new challenges for cities and settlement structures in Germany. It is vital to develop urban concepts to counter the causes and effects of climate change. Climate change adapted urban development calls for greater than ever integration of the various social, ecological and economic factors. In addition, complexity and uncertainty provide major difficulties for decision makers. To date, only a few - mainly large - cities have published concepts for climate change adaptation. In medium-sized and smaller towns, there is often a lack of personnel, know-how and resources to come up with appropriate climate change adaptation strategies. This is where KlimaExWoSt comes in. It will study existing problems and obstructions and test possible methods for climate change adapted urban development.
The objective is to support decision makers in urban development. Based on scientific principles, a decision support tool will be developed that can be used by local authorities and is specific to the relevant players. The city climate pilot is intended to support selection and implementation of climate protection and climate adaptation measures in local urban development.
The current version provides:
- Estimate of local susceptibility to climate change using a special module;
- Generation of a susceptibility profile;
- Automatic creation of a specific list of measures according to susceptibility;
- Combination of individual measures into a tailored list;
- Comments and additions to individual measures by users.
Content time
toResearch area/region
Country
- Germany
Steps in the process of adaptation to climate change
Step 1: Understand and describe climate change
Approach and results
In terms of climate change information, the project refers to the "German Regional Climate Atlas" (Helmhotz Society) and the "German Climate Atlas" (German Meteorological Office).
Step 2a: Identify and assess risks - climate effects and impact
Approach and results
Information about the relevant climate effects can be found in the individual measures in the city climate pilot.
The opportunity to carry out a self-assessment of susceptibility is provided, as many users initially need to obtain a basic idea of their own susceptibility to climate change. The user is guided through a short list of questions, in which they can simultaneously be referred directly to appropriate sources, allowing a sound self-assessment if there are no existing local studies. Based on this self-assessment, which deals with the sequences of effects, the city climate pilot then produces an appropriate, prioritised list of measures.
Selection for following fields of action possible: Residential area development, urban design and town planning, green space, open space and landscape, transport and mobility, sport and leisure, community (health), knowledge and education, culture and preservation of monuments, technical and social infrastructure, business and retail.
Step 3: Develop and compare measures
Measures and/or strategies
The city climate pilot is an independent advisory instrument for specific players used to select appropriate climate adaptation measures for local urban development. It access a database of more than 140 measures and provides various query options to identify the measures potentially of interest in the local context. The identification of synergies and conflicts between individual measures is an important element. For all measures, a profile containing information about example applications, legal issues and more detailed literature can be downloaded.
Version 4.0 beta of the city climate pilot contains approximately 140 measures from 10 fields of action, 330 references to legal texts and 61 examples for planning and applying measures. The city climate pilot will be continuously enhanced and extended as part of the KlimaExWoSt project: now the version 5.0 beta is available.
Participants
Funding / Financing
The city climate pilot is being developed as part of the "KlimaExWoSt - Urban climate change strategies" research project, in the "Urban Climate - Local Strategies and Potential" research area. The project is part of the "Experimental residential and town planning (ExWoSt)" research programme and is being run on behalf of the German Ministry of Transport, Construction and Urban Development (BMVBS) and the Federal Institute of Construction, Urban and Spatial Research (BBSR) in the Federal Office of Construction and Spatial Development (BBR).
Project management
Research assistance: Dortmund University of Technology, Institute of Spatial Planning (IRPUD)
Cooperation/Partners
Cooperation:
- Plan and practice, Berlin;
- United Nations University, Bonn;
Contact
Technische Universität Dortmund,
Institut für Raumplanung (IRPUD)
August-Schmidt-Straße 10
D-44227 Dortmund
stefan.greiving @ tu-dortmund.de
http://www.raumplanung.tu-dortmund.de/irpud/index.php
