Since autumn 2017, an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practice partners has been investigating in the “HeatResilientCity” project how city districts and buildings can be better adapted to summer heat. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is now funding the project for a further two years. Phase II is about the practical implementation of adaptation measures. The project also focuses on the topic of health.

Advice, qualification, implementation - that is the focus of the “HeatResilientCity II” project. The aim is to familiarize many practitioners with the subject of heat adaptation in urban districts, to form new networks and jointly develop suitable tools and decision-making aids for urban and open space planning, but also the individual actions of citizens.

The project consortium also includes the Leibniz Institute for Ecological Spatial Development, which coordinates the project, the Dresden University of Technology, the Dresden University of Technology and Economics, the Institute for Urban Research, Planning and Communication of the Erfurt University of Applied Sciences and the provincial capitals of Dresden and Erfurt. The Office for Health and Prevention of the City of Dresden is new to the project team. The Erfurt Health Department and the major landlords, the Eisenbahner-Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft Dresden and the housing association Zukunft Erfurt will also be involved in the project.

The knowledge acquired in phase I of the project from October 2017 to January 2021 about adapting to summer heat in city districts and individual buildings is to be specifically expanded in phase II. Information and qualification offers are planned for employees in municipal administrations, but also for professional associations, city parliaments, building owners and administrators as well as the general public. Together with the city administrations of Dresden and Erfurt, it is carefully examined which obstacles have to be overcome in order to be able to transfer the topic of prevention and heat adaptation into municipal action and also to achieve better cooperation across office boundaries. The administrations will also support the scientific partner institutions in developing digital data, instruments and planning aids. These are intended to make it easier in future to identify urban areas with urgent need for action and to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of various measures.

In the continuation of the project, the topic of health will be examined more intensely than before. Long hot spells in summer are already having a negative impact on the well-being and health of large parts of the population in many places. Among other things, a “heat prevention” health network is to be created and important information for multipliers is to be compiled in a manual.

The research work from the first project phase will be continued and deepened in “HeatResilientCity II”. For example, it is being examined how findings from the examined city quarters in Dresden and Erfurt can also be transferred to other climatic regions and urban structures in Germany. Likewise, tried and tested methods of analysis with which the effects of summer heat on buildings can be assessed are to be applied to other building types. This allows the heat load of different building types to be compared. The influence of different adaptation measures in open spaces on the heat load in the building is also analyzed in the project.

Background

The project "HeatResilientCity II" (heat adaptation of urban building and settlement structure types - actor-oriented implementation support to strengthen climate resilience and health care) is being carried out by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as a project of the "Flagship Initiative City of the Future" in the subject area "Climate resilience through action in the city and region “Promoted. The project will receive a total of around 1.5 million euros for the period from February 2021 to January 2023. Scientific partner institutions are the Leibniz Institute for Ecological Spatial Development (joint management), the Institute for Urban Research, Planning and Communication of the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt (ISP), the Professorship for Meteorology at the Technical University of Dresden and the Dresden University of Technology and Economics, Professorship for Building Physics / Building climate and ventilation technology as well as professorship for building construction. Practice partners are the state capital Dresden, environmental agency and the office for health and prevention and the state capital Erfurt, environmental and nature conservation agency. Associated partners are the health department of the state capital Erfurt as well as the Eisenbahner-Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft eG in Dresden and the housing cooperative Zukunft eG in Erfurt.

Project website: http://heatresilientcity.de

Information for journalists:
TU Dresden / Professorship for Meteorology
Dr. Astrid Ziemann

Dr. Valeri Goldberg