Implementing Heat-Related Adaptation Measures in the Tri-City Area Bergisches Städtedreieck

Abstract

In order to meet the challenges of climate change, the overarching strategies of climate change mitigation and adaptation play an equally important role in urban development (IPCC 2014). This leads to the overall question of how municipalities realize climate change adaption strategies in the context of their spatial development. The project ‘BESTKLIMA—Implementation and quality assurance of the climate adaptation concept in the Bergisches Städtedreieck’ aims to develop and test transferable spatial development solutions for climate adaptation in the cities of Remscheid, Solingen, and Wuppertal. The project follows the research approach of climate change governance using a moderated bottom-up method, which involves the actors and their knowledge of methods and facts (BMVBS and BBSR 2013). One objective of the project is to promote the integration of measures that tackle thermal stress into administrative practice. The question is now how precicely to implement the heat-related measures that were decided upon in the previously adopted regional climate change adaption strategy. For this purpose, constellations of actors and responsibilities in handling heat waves are identified based on expert interviews. Initial results show that the cities share approaches to forestry and health care but differ in their approaches to spatial planning as well as green and open space development when it comes to heat.