How can cities successfully adapt to the challenges posed by climate change?

• How do you match climate protection and climate adaptation?
  
• What are the synergies and trade-offs between development goals and what role do urban areas play here?
  
• What adaptation possibilities are there in cities and districts (private/public) in existing buildings and new-builds?
• How can private and economic actors be won as partners for urban climate adaptation? What are the new needs and possibilities for cooperation between public and private actors?
• What potential do blue and green infrastructures provide?
• What do suitable strategies for cities look like, what fields of action and innovation do these include?
   

Integrated digitization of drinking water supply (InDigWa)

InDigWa is a Morgenstadt (City of the Future) innovation partnership for synergetic data utilization on drinking water supply. The objective is to bring together all the stakeholders in this field for the first time to increase the efficiency and quality of the overall system using data-based solutions and thus to further improve drinking water safety. All the stakeholders, who have so far largely acted autonomously, and their different data formats are to be interlinked in a network and disruptive new value-added created. As one of the project partners, Fraunhofer ISI is providing expertise, among others, on water reuse, alternative water resources, water and heat, and future developments in water supply and demand. 

KlimaKoop.Komm: Cooperative storylines of municipalities and the housing industry for blue-green infrastructures to adapt to climate change

The impacts of climate change can already be felt today. Particularly in densely populated areas, there is an urgent need for action. Heat waves or heavy rainfall events have an especially strong impact on dense built-up areas with a high degree of sealed surfaces. Creating and maintaining open and green spaces, greening cities, roofs and facades, ensuring drainage, retaining and creating fresh air corridors, using blue infrastructure and increasing the Albedo effect are key starting points for possible adaptation measures. The aim of the project is to leverage the potential for cooperation between municipalities and the housing industry to adapt residential areas to climate change. To achieve this, a network is being established to support cooperation between existing municipal networks and advisory services in North Rhine-Westphalia and the housing industry. In a moderated process, the goal of this new network (Network KlimaKoop.Komm) is to systematically process experiences, discuss synergies and barriers to cooperation between municipalities and the housing industry and develop concrete approaches to cooperation. 

Weiterentwicklung des Integrierten Klimaschutzplans Hessen 2025

Noch vor der Paris-Konferenz beschloss die hessische Landesregierung 2015 ihr Ziel, die Treibhausgasemissionen des Landes bis 2050 um mindestens 90 Prozent gegenüber 1990 zu verringern, mit den Zwischenzielen einer Reduktion um 30 Prozent bis 2020 und um 40 Prozent bis 2025. 2019 wurde auch das Bundesziel der 55 Prozent Minderung bis 2030 für Hessen übernommen. Zudem sollen die Ziele noch weiter nach Wirtschaftssektoren differenziert werden, um die Umsetzung gezielter steuern zu können. Allein die Größe der zu erreichenden Minderungsziele zeigt deutlich, dass das Ambitionsniveau beständig steigt und mit jedem Jahr höhere Einsparungen als im Vorjahr erreicht werden sollen. Entsprechend engagiert muss die Klimapolitik agieren. Das Monitoring hat gezeigt, dass das 2020er Ziel ohne die Auswirkungen der Pandemie knapp verfehlt worden wäre. Vor allem hat es aber auch verdeutlicht, wie stark die Zielabweichung mit den aktuell bestehenden Rahmenbedingungen und Maßnahmen ausfallen würde. An dieser Stelle setzt die Überarbeitung an und entwickelt Maßnahmen in verschiedenen Sektoren.  

Transition of Water InfraSTructure sytems: Adapting to new challenges in urban and rural areas (TWIST++)

This project aims to find integrated and sustainable technical solutions that combine disposal tasks for wastewater with supply tasks for drinking water and increase the flexibility of the overall system to adapt to future changes. A project consortium has been formed led by Fraunhofer ISI, which includes companies from the fields of planning, software/game development and systems engineering alongside research institutes and partners from local authorities, as well as the water and wastewater sector (operators).

Transition design for sustainable innovations – Initiatives in the municipal fields of action energy, water, construction & housing (TransNIK)

Innovative approaches towards sustainability can be observed in various areas, including traditional municipal fields of action, such as: energy supply, water supply & sewage disposal, as well as construction and housing. TransNIK aims to investigate drivers and obstacles for the development and dissemination of innovative sustainable approaches in these three fields of action and to identify key points for a transition to new solutions.

Integrated Water-Energy-Transition Concept (iWET) – Coers-Fläche Lünen

The model area “Coers-Fläche” in Lünen is an industrial brownfield site of about 15,800 m² with plans for residential development. The Bauverein zu Lünen (BVzL) (Lünen Building Society) is the owner of the Coers site. Decentralized rainwater management is to be provided on the site to decouple surface areas that influence run-off.  

Feasibility study: Implementing climate adaptation measures using blue and green infrastructures to support sustainable urban redensification in Bochum-Weitmar (Nach²Bo)

This study, which is funded by the housing sector and the Future Initiative “Water in tomorrow's city”, examines the use of blue and green infrastructure in the district.

In spite of the need to adapt to climate change, especially in cities, these concerns are often ranked below other challenges in municipal practice (creation of affordable housing, redensification). The real estate sector and the housing sector, in particular, represent important new players in this field: Redensification measures and measures to increase the energy efficiency of buildings provide fundamental windows of opportunity to realize climate adaptation measures in the housing stock.

This is where the Nach²Bo project starts and develops exemplary solutions together with the local authority and a housing association for an urban redensification district in Bochum.
 

Innovative Use of Wasteheat using sewers for energy transport (InnoA2_up)

The overall objective is the detailed elaboration and evaluation of specific implementation options for flagship projects for the development of previously unused decentralized waste heat potential through heat transport and distribution to heat consumers in the existing sewer system.

Bundled infrastructure planning and admissions and integrated conversion of regional supply systems – challenges for environmental and sustainability assessments? (INTEGRIS)

The overall aim of this research project is to find out how bundling infrastructures can create more environmentally friendly solutions. They should be transferable to the whole of Germany in terms of admission and planning regulations and in terms of their immediate spatial impact and the sustainable regional d evelopment. It is investigated which barriers result from expanding potentially intended bundled infrastructures and how these can be overcome.

Climate protection and energy efficiency potentials in the wastewater sector (KlimAW)

The primary objective of the research project is to determine the contribution that the wastewater sector could make to achieving the climate targets. The aim is to identify adaptation requirements with regard to a consistent optimization of wastewater treatment plants and their integration into the energy system and reveal factors hindering implementation.

Conserving resources in the health sector

The exploitation of synergies between different fields of policy and the reduction of conflicting targets are important activities in the German resource efficiency program. So far, there has only been a rudimentary examination of where the health sector intersects with the topic of conserving resources. This research project’s objective is to exploit synergies and potentials between the policy fields of resource conservation and health. The project is commissioned by the German Environment Agency and develops strategic fields of activity and options to address the topic “Conserving resources in the health sector”.

• Hohmann, C.; Bieker, S. (2023): Klimaanpassung mittels blaugrüner Infrastrukturen – Beschleunigung von Nachhaltigkeitstransformationen mit dem Infrastructure-Transition-Canvas (ITC). In: Transforming Cities 3/23 »Ökosystem Stadt«, S. 71-75.
• Niederste-Hollenberg, J.; Hillenbrand, T. (2020): Von der Siedlungsentwässerung zum Wassermanagement. Transition am Beispiel eines Stadtquartiers. In: Fbr-Wasserspiegel (2020), Nr. 4, S. 3-8.
• Niederste-Hollenberg, J.; Hillenbrand, T.; Hilgenfeldt, V. (2020): Von der Entwässerung zum Wassermanagement - Transition am Beispiel eines Stadtquartiers in Lünen. In: Regenwassermanagement. Dezentrale Regenwassermaßnahmen für Gebäude, Grundstücke und Verkehrsflächen. Berlin: Ernst & Sohn, 2020 (Ernst & Sohn Special April 2020 - A61029), S. 21-25.
• Bauer, W.; Radecki, A. v.; Ottendörfer, E. (2020): Zukunftsfähige Städte und Regionen. Eine neue Strategie für die breite Umsetzung nachhaltiger Stadtentwicklung in Deutschland. Stuttgart: Fraunhofer IAO.
  
• Helferich, M.; Schmittel, N.; Dütschke, E.; Hanss, D. (2020): Warum Bürgerinnen und Bürger aktiv werden: Einblick in den Zusammenhang von kommunalem und individuellem Klimaschutzengagement. Kurzbericht. In: Umweltpsychologie 24(1), 142-152.
  
• Wydra, S.; Daimer, S.; Hüsing, B.; Köhler, J.; Schwarz, A.; Voglhuber-Slavinsky, A.; Heyen, N. B.; Lindner, R.; Schirrmeister, E.; Seus, S. (2020): Transformationspfade zur Bioökonomie. Zukunftsszenarien und politische Gestaltung. Karlsruhe: Fraunhofer ISI.
• Hillenbrand, T.; Hohmann, C.; Bieker, S.; Niederste-Hollenberg, J.; Tettenborn, F.; Grimm, A. (2019): Kopplung technischer Infrastruktursysteme am Beispiel Wasser: Potenziale, Hemmnisse und deren Überwindung. In: Transforming Cities: Urbane Systeme im Wandel: das technisch-wissenschaftliche Fachmagazin. - München: Trialog Publ. - 2366-7281 (ISSN). - (2019) 4.
  
• Sartorius, C.; Hillenbrand; T.; Niederste-Hollenberg, J. (2019): Multikriterielle Bewertung von Wasserinfrastruktursystemen im Kontext der SDGs. In: W. Leal Filho (Hrsg.): Aktuelle Ansätze zur Umsetzung der UN-Nachhaltigkeitsziele, S. 271-289, Springer Spektrum, Berlin, Heidelberg; Print ISBN 978-3-662-58716-4 ; Online ISBN 978-3-662-58717-1 .
• Hillenbrand, T.; Bieker, S.; Dockhorn, T.; Felmeden, J.; Kaufmann-Alves, I.; Langergraber, G.; Lautenschläger, S.; Maurer, M.; Neuhausen, S.; Steinmetz, H. (2018): Evaluating the sustainability of water infrastructure systems – Guide for using the standard DWA-A 272. In: KA Korrespondenz Abwasser, Abfall. - Hennef: GFA, Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Abwassertechnik. - 1866-0029 (ISSN) 1616-430X (ISSN) 0341-1540 (E-ISSN). - 65 (2018) 5.
  
• Hillenbrand, T.; Bieker, S.; Dockhorn, T.; Felmeden, J.; Kaufmann Alves, I.; Langergraber, G.; Lautenschläger, S.; Maurer, M.; Neuhausen, S.; Steinmetz, H. (2018): Leitfaden – Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung von Wasserinfrastruktursystemen – Leitfaden zur Anwendung des DWA-A 272. Hennef: DWA.
• Hillenbrand, T.; Eckartz, K.; Hiessl, H.; Hohmann, C.; Niederste-Hollenberg, J. (2018): Transition urbaner Wasserinfrastruktursysteme – notwendig und machbar? In: KA Korrespondenz Abwasser, Abfall. 65, Nr. 2, S. 121-129.
• Niederste-Hollenberg, J. (2018): Transition urbaner Wasserinfrastrukturen: Motivation und Ansätze. Tagungsband 30. Hamburger Kolloquium zur Abwasserwirtschaft 2018: Hamburger Berichte zur Siedlungswasserwirtschaft. Band Nr. 97; ISBN 978-3-942768-22-1 .
  
• Niederste-Hollenberg, J.; Menger-Krug, E.; Feldmann, U.; Joel, E.; Hillenbrand, T. (2016): Transition von Wasserinfrastruktursystemen in Bestands- und Neuerschließungsgebieten. In: Wasserwirtschaft Wassertechnik. Sonderausgabe Modernisierungsreport 2016/2017. S. 4-9.
• Sartorius et al. (2016): Indikatoren zur Bewertung alternativer Wasserinfrastrukturen im Projekt TWIST++. Karlsruhe: Fraunhofer ISI.
   

• Feasibility studies
• Scenario development
• Carbon accounting
• Life cycle analyses
• Profitability calculations
• Sensitivity analyses