How can densely built-up city quarters and the people who live there be protected from summer heat in the long term? The transdisciplinary project HeatResilientCity is dedicated to this question. Now the project has been nominated for the German Sustainability Research Award 2022. An online voting will decide whether it will receive the prize on December 3rd.

The record summers of 2018 and 2019 clearly showed that long-lasting heat waves will be one of the major challenges for urban development in the future. What can municipalities, the housing industry, but also the population do? For four years, scientists from various disciplines have been investigating this question together with practical partners in the HeatResilientCity project. The HeatResilientCity project has now been nominated by an expert jury for the German Sustainability Research Award 2022 for its innovative studies, the involvement of the local population and the broad implementation of the first measures.

This year's competition focuses on adapting to climate change and dealing with extreme weather events in cities and regions. We were looking for application-oriented projects that present solutions for adapting to climate change and thus meet the challenges of climate change through preventive action. The three finalists will be presented on November 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the program "nano" on 3sat. The audience then decides via online voting which of them will receive the German Sustainability Research Award. You can already vote: https://www.nachhaltigkeitspreis.de/wettbewerbe/forschung/

For the HeatResilientCity project team, the exchange with residents in the two urban districts investigated in Erfurt and Dresden is particularly important. Above all, measures that they consider sensible are implemented in the project in order to increase the acceptance of necessary precautionary measures against summer heat. A lot has already happened in the neighborhoods: In Dresden-Gorbitz, three buildings have been renovated to adapt to heat. In the eastern part of Erfurt, 50 new climate-resilient trees and bushes provide more shade and cooling. In addition, drinking water stations were set up in the project, a flowering meadow was created, and tree sponsorships and irrigation initiatives were started. The focus will now be on continuing education until January 2023. The project team will train administrative, housing and health care workers on the subject of heat adaptation and enable them to implement adaptation measures. It also develops suitable tools and decision-making aids for urban and open space planning, but also the individual actions of citizens.

The HeatResilientCity project has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2017 as a project of the “Leading Initiative City of the Future” in the subject area “Climate resilience through action in the city and region”. In addition to the Institute for Hydrology and Meteorology of the Technical University of Dresden, the project network includes the Leibniz Institute for Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IÖR) in Dresden, the Institute for Urban Research, Planning and Communication of the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt (ISP), the University of Technology and Economics (HTW) Dresden, the environmental office of the state capital Dresden, the environmental and nature conservation office of the state capital Erfurt as well as in phase I the railway housing cooperative Dresden and in phase II the office for health and prevention of the state capital Dresden.

The German Research Sustainability Prize is being awarded for the tenth time this year. The German Sustainability Award Foundation awarded him the prize. V. and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The finalists were selected by a specially appointed jury. The online vote on which of the nominated projects should receive the German Sustainability Research Award will run until November 15th. The award ceremony will take place on December 3rd as part of the 14th German Sustainability Day in Düsseldorf.

Vote here!

Contact at TU Dresden
Dr. Astrid Ziemann
Dr. Valeri Goldberg