Climate Adaption Strategy for the City of Alsdorf
Background
As climate change progresses, planning and constructional adaptation to changing climatic conditions will play an increasingly important role in addition to climate protection.
The City of Alsdorf has been active for some time in the field of climate protection in order to counteract the consequences of climate change. According to the "Leitbild Stadt Alsdorf 2021" developed in 2011, the city is committed to sustainability and was able to create an integrated climate protection concept in the “Städteregion Aachen” in 2014 as part of the inter-communal climate protection management. Since February 2017, the City of Alsdorf has employed a climate protection manager who is actively working on the implementation of the actions, created within the climate protection concept. In the field of climate impact adaptation at regional level, the active participation of the City of Alsdorf in the project called "ESKAPE" has generated initial impulses for the adaptation to climate change.
The City of Alsdorf is now called to adapt to future changes in climate and consequently to changing weather patterns. In order to identify and evaluate the current risks of climate change, to subsequently derive the possible need for action and to develop specific measures, the City of Alsdorf decided to have a climate adaptation strategy drawn up which will be tailored according to the city's framework conditions.
Project Goal
The aim of the concept is to obtain a fundamental valuation of the effects of climate change on the examination area of the City of Alsdorf to spatially locate the effects of climate change and to identify fields of action. Based on the identified risks and the resulting opportunities in Alsdorf, an overall strategy for adaptation to climate change and a catalogue of individual, practice-relevant and detailed measures is to be developed. This will include particular local options for action for climate adaptation, but also includes actors and concrete measures that go beyond spatial planning.
Methodology and Desired Results
With the help of GIS-supported data a concept and a checklist for the spatial planning for the City of Alsdorf shall be developed. In addition, an evaluation and controlling concept must be developed, which contains proposals for continuous evaluation and controlling measures and a strategy for stabilisation.
In order to raise awareness of the relevance of climate adaptation in general from the very beginning of the project and to achieve sustainable support for the overall strategy and the later implementation of the measures in particular, the project focuses on the early identification, involvement and participation of relevant actors. Through the formation of a competence network, a target group-specific communication strategy and various events, the results should be continuously communicated to the public and thus contribute to an increase in the climate adaptation competence of the actors and their impact as multipliers.
Funding
As part of the "German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change", the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) is funding projects which support adaption to climate change and provide answers to the consequences of global warming such as heat waves, floods or heavy rainfall.
Contents and Structure of the Project
Project Partner
Duration
03/2020-10/2021
Contacts
Project management and point of contact
Sabrina Hoenen, M. Sc. +49 (0)241 80-25204 (Parental leaveuntil 09.2021)
Loisa Welfers, M. Sc. +49 (0)241 80-25204 (Representation)
Dr. Andreas Witte +49 (0)241 80-25202