Adaptation in cities – The art of lateral thinking

Adaptation of urban areas and its surroundings requires the consideration of many factors and drivers, including their interactions. Additionally, a large number of interests from key players such as administration (from local to regional), politics, and companies as well as state of the art scientific knowledge have to be included.

Aside from the individual scope and strategic objectives, regional to local climate change information is one of the important corner stones in estimating possible future climate change impacts and the related hot spots in the area under investigation.

Using the example of three previous applications of the GERICS urban construction kit, Apl. Prof. Dr. Steffen Bender and Dr. Markus Groth from the Department of Climate Impacts and Economics of GERICS describe in the stakeholder eBook "Climate adaptation in cities: The Art of Lateral Thinking", how an adaptation to the consequences of climate change at city level can succeed and what central importance the art of lateral thinking has. In addition to a brief introduction, the practical benefits of the GERICS urban kit are illustrated in detail by the three examples
i) urban heat stress maps,
ii) hotspot maps for urban floods and
iii) sectoral adaptation strategies for compensatory measures.

Read the publication: "Climate adaptation in cities – The Art of Lateral Thinking"