The Contribution of Urban Climate Models for the Adaptation to Heat Stress – Lessons Learned from three Transdisciplinary Case Studie

Bender, Steffen and Groth, Markus and Potyka, Miriam and Schubert-Frisius, Martina (2025) The Contribution of Urban Climate Models for the Adaptation to Heat Stress – Lessons Learned from three Transdisciplinary Case Studie. URBAN INNOVATION: TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO CITIES HAVE GONE BEFORE. Medium sized cities and towns as a major arena of global urbanisation. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2025, 30th Intl. Conference on Urban Development, Regional Planning and Information Society. pp. 895-905. ISSN 2521-3938

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Abstract

Climate change poses significant multiple challenges to urban areas, affecting public health, infrastructure, and essential services through rising temperatures, increasing dry seasons, heavy rain events, and shifting precipitation patterns. In response, cities must develop climate adaptation strategies and implement adaptation measures to create climate resilient infrastructures, adopting green urban planning, and fostering community engagement. One of the most pressing concerns is the intensifying impact of extreme heat, particularly during summer months, which is aggravated by both climate change and human activities. In urban environments, where the landuse is characterized by extensive impervious artificial surfaces and heat-retaining structures like buildings and roads, extreme heat events contribute to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. In order to meet these challenges, city planners need useful tools that allow the modeling of different city development scenarios and the related effects on the environment. Against this background, the paper presents and discusses the practical use, main results and lessons learned from transdiciplinary case studies using three different urban climate models in three German cities. The “PALM-4U” model was employed to analyze heat stress in Geesthacht's city center, while the “FITNAH 3D” model by GEO-NET was applied to the entire urban area of Boizenburg/Elbe, including surrounding green and water spaces. Additionally, the "ENVI-met" model was used to simulate the effects of greening strategies on microclimates at four heat-stressed sites in Lüneburg. Although all models have the focus on the temperature field and the thermal well-being of the citizens, the model approaches – including the needed model input – differ from model to model. These different model applications – conducted in close transdiciplinary collaboration with local key stakeholders – and the specific results, highlight the differences of model outcomes. This paper gives an overview of the main model characteristics. Furthermore, it discusses the typical information gained from such modeling approaches in the context of open questions related to the transfer of model results into administrative processes. Hence, our research can help urban planners, architects, and policymakers seeking to design and retrofit urban environments to improve thermal comfort and sustainability.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	urban climate models, heat stress, climate change adaptation, case studies, transdiciplinarity
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences J Political Science > JS Local government Municipal government
Depositing User:	The CORP Team
Date Deposited:	24 May 2025 11:33
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2025 09:08
URI:	http://repository.corp.at/id/eprint/1207

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