BaumAdapt - Optimization of city-wide ecosystem services in line with the resilience of critical infrastructure in the focus of summer strong wind events and climate adaptation
Background and Goals
The city of Essen experienced with Ela in early June 2014, the hitherto most intense summer storm since records began. About 87% of the total damage was in the area of green infrastructure and predominantly in the trees. Only after 5 days, the road network was largely intact again, the public transport rolled back, schools and day-care centers could reopen - despite excellent work by the rapidly established urban crisis team.
The project objective is to develop areas of action to increase the resilience of urban tree populations and to take into account the vulnerability of critical infrastructure. In the context of climate change, the highest possible level of risk-free ecosystem services should be developed and put into practice on the basis of test pilots. The project is expected to provide high portability for other municipalities, increasing risk awareness of storm events.
Content time
sinceResearch area/region
Country
- Germany
Region of implementation (all German federal states)
- Northrhine-Westphalia
Natural spatial classification
- West German lowland bay
Spatial resolution
City of Essen
Steps in the process of adaptation to climate change
Step 2a: Identify and assess risks - climate effects and impact
Approach and results
The first research focus is the retrospective analysis of the effects of the summer storm Ela with regard to the quantitative changes of the tree population in dependence
- The wind direction
- the city structures
- the forest / city tree population structures
- the orography
At the same time, the systemic criticality of urban infrastructures will be investigated and analysed, from which a city-wide criticality ranking will be established. Infrastructures are considered "critical" if they are essential to the functioning of modern societies and their failure or impairment results in persistent disruption of the overall system. On this basis, in combination with the findings of wind dynamics and their impact on trees, simulation calculations are carried out for storm scenarios with different site-appropriate forest and urban tree structures in comparable risk structures.
Step 3: Develop and compare measures
Measures and/or strategies
On the basis of the analysis and simulations concrete recommendations for action are developed with the participation of the public institutions, the city administration, politics and citizenship, which the city and all landowners can use in the context of new and replanting. The results will also provide important insights for environmental and disaster risk planning in the context of the climate-friendly development of the City of Essen.
Participants
Funding / Financing
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
Project management
City of Essen
Cooperation/Partners
Institute for Spatial Planning of the TU Dortmund (IRPUD)
