How can municipalities better prepare for heat, heavy rain and drought? What support do they need for climate adaptation?
Climate adaptation means preparing for the consequences of climate change and reducing negative impacts on the environment, health and the economy. As these consequences become ever more visible, municipalities, cities and districts are particularly challenged.
In addition to heat and health protection, preparing for extreme events such as heavy rain is becoming increasingly important. Urban, green-space and building planning must also be adapted to the new challenges. Another task of municipal climate adaptation is dealing with slow-onset changes such as falling groundwater levels, forest and soil damage, or the spread of non-native species.
“The biggest challenges in planning and implementing climate adaptation measures are, by far, the lack of human and financial resources, as well as the limitations of municipal administrative structures.”
Dr. Thomas Friedrich, Research Scientist
We research how municipal climate adaptation can succeed and how local adaptive capacity can be strengthened. Together with actors from politics, administration, business and society, we develop holistic solutions.
In doing so, we identify knowledge needs, analyse challenges, opportunities and trade-offs, and develop concepts, strategies and measures in a participatory way that are viable in the long term. Our focus areas are the management of water as a key resource, the protection and adaptation of infrastructure – especially blue-green infrastructure –, the conservation of biodiversity and urban nature, support for particularly vulnerable groups, and the question of how climate adaptation can be coordinated, organised and shaped jointly.
As part of the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) provides financial and strategic support for the development of municipal climate adaptation concepts. We contribute our comprehensive expertise in this area: On behalf of municipalities, we develop sound climate adaptation concepts based on scientific analyses and our extensive consulting experience.
We systematically incorporate our research in the areas of climate adaptation, blue-green infrastructure, water demand forecasting, biodiversity promotion, urban nature development, and communication, participation and transfer strategies into the concepts. We work in an interdisciplinary and practical manner, collaborating with local decision-makers and other partners on the ground. Our goal is to develop implementation-oriented strategies that will make cities and municipalities sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change.
The Municipal Survey on Climate Adaptation 2027 builds on the monitoring of the German Adaptation Strategy (DAS) and explores the possibility of establishing it as a permanent tool.
