R2K Workshop at the Ölmühle: Impulses for Climate Adapta-tion in Aachen, Duisburg & Stolberg

The 20-member R2K-Klim+ consortium met in Aachen on February 11-12, 2025 to discuss current approaches to climate adaptation and the status of work in the project in interactive sessions.

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Impressions of the R2K workshop.  © FiW e. V.
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Impressions of the R2K workshop.  © FiW e. V.
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Impressions of the R2K workshop.  © FiW e. V.
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On February 11 and 12, 2025, the roughly 20-member, interdisciplinary consortium of the BMBF-funded project R2K-Klim+ met in the freshly renovated premises of the historic oil mill of the FiW in Aachen. Various consortium partners presented the current status of their work packages. As external guests, we were pleased to welcome two climate adaptation managers: Jens Hasse from the City of Aachen and Yannick Zohren from the Kupferstadt Stolberg, who each presented the current state of climate adaptation in their municipalities. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) funds the joint project R2K-Klim+ as part of the funding measure “Regional Information on Climate Action” within the federal program “Water: N”. Water: N is part of the BMBF strategy “Research for Sustainability (FONA)”.

After more than five workshops, we, as the consortium coordinator, were finally able to invite the R2K consortium to our premises. In our meeting room, central project developments were presented on the first day of the workshop and the two external presentations were discussed. Yannick Zohren provided insights into the climate adaptation concept for the Kupferstadt Stolberg, which is currently under development, and shared the latest results of the vulnerability analysis. Just last year, an R2K workshop was held in Stolberg, during which a tour of the severely damaged city center—affected by the 2021 flood—illustrated the extent of the damage. Due to the ongoing reconstruction work, interesting synergies as well as challenges are emerging. In the city of Aachen, a number of specialist concepts related to climate adaptation are already in place. Jens Hasse provided an overview and outlined how climate adaptation measures can be integrated into various urban development projects.

Furthermore, the focus was on presenting current work results:

  • GIS Plugin “Gunst-/Ungunsträume”: The tool from gaiac automatically identifies heat areas stressed by the climate.
  • Damage Functions for Heavy Rainfall: Geomer presented approaches for the quantitative determination of potential damage, including discussions on the water retention capacity of basements.
  • Stakeholder Analysis in the Duisburg Area: Prognos and the City of Duisburg outlined which stakeholders should be involved in implementing effective adaptation measures.

On the second day, interactive sessions deepened practical topics. Prognos provided insights into the transport cost model for low-water events. The FiW moderated a discussion on evaluation methodology, during which the central question arose whether users should be allowed to freely choose the aggregation method or if a standardized procedure—simplifying decision-making processes and ensuring comparability—would be more sensible. This discussion underscored the general challenge of developing a uniform evaluation methodology for various adaptation measures.

The intensive discussions and interdisciplinary exchange confirm how important close cooperation between research, municipal administration, and practice partners is for advancing sustainable and practical climate adaptation concepts. We thank all participants for the constructive dialogue and look forward to the next steps in the R2K-Klim+ project.