With its own Climate Adaptation Act, the federal government of Germany is regulating climate adaptation nationwide for the first time, following North Rhine-Westphalia's adoption of its own Climate Adaptation Act in July 2021. An important component will be the continuation of the national climate adaptation strategy, which was published in 2008. Similar to climate protection, indicators were established here for the first time to measure the progress of climate adaptation. The concretization, updating, and evaluation will be developed with appropriate support from the scientific community.
In 2021, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection (BMUV) amended its funding guideline “Measures for Adaptation to the Consequences of Climate Change” of the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (DAS). This program promotes the hiring of climate adaptation managers in municipalities for the first time, prompting numerous municipalities to respond with corresponding job advertisements. However, it is not only in terms of personnel capacities that municipalities have since been supported in their entry into municipal adaptation management. Components of the funding program include the creation of sustainable adaptation concepts (initial projects), implementation projects (follow-up projects), and selected measures for adaptation to climate change. The Zukunft-Umwelt-Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH is responsible for administering the program. The funding guideline covers the need for municipality-specific climate adaptation. Not every municipality is affected equally by every climate impact. While some municipalities located near bodies of water are particularly vulnerable to flooding, others are affected by so-called “heat islands” or more frequent heavy rainfall events. Individual urban design is also always a decisive factor in vulnerability. Densely built-up and highly sealed settlement areas are particularly susceptible to climatic extremes, while retention areas and green-blue infrastructures have a positive effect. In the context of limited land availability, this inevitably leads to conflicts of interest with other municipal tasks, such as urban planning, transport, or the social issue of environmental justice.
The funding program takes all these points into account in order to make the task of climate adaptation as uniform as possible throughout Germany. After an initial analysis of the current situation and the extent of the impact, particularly vulnerable areas in the city, known as “hot spots,” are identified. As part of an overall strategy, climate adaptation measures are then developed specifically for these hot spots. In doing so, interfaces with other sustainability goals and municipal tasks are to be taken into account. To ensure this, stakeholders are involved, including the relevant administrative authorities, external stakeholders, and the public. The aim of the process is to identify adaptation measures that can also be implemented in practice at the local level. These are then integrated into the concept's sustainability strategy, and indicators are defined for monitoring the progress of implementation. The FiW contributes its expertise in municipal climate adaptation gained in research projects. Together with GERTEC GmbH, which has many years of experience in developing climate protection concepts, the FiW is now creating climate adaptation concepts for various municipalities and is also planning further projects of this kind.
The FiW can contribute both its interdisciplinary approach and its technical expertise on the effects of water-related climate impacts to the projects. In the hot spot analysis, the FiW uses GIS analyses to identify areas that are particularly vulnerable to flooding and heavy rainfall. In addition, it takes an integrated view of other specialist data, such as urban climate analyses, meteorological records, and sociodemographic data. The result is that the municipality ultimately obtains a holistic picture of how it is affected by climate change, enabling it to work with FiW and GERTEC to develop effective adaptation measures in the further process. When it comes to involving stakeholders and the public, FiW benefits from its many years of experience in dialogue processes, workshop formats, and science communication. The subsequent creation of action profiles has also been part of numerous projects.
Since 2020, FiW has been coordinating an interdisciplinary consortium in the R2K-Klim+ research project with the aim of developing a decision support tool for climate adaptation (KLAUS – Climate Adaptation of Urban Systems) for the city of Duisburg. In collaboration with the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG), FiW is responsible for
hydrological modeling taking into account the IPCC climate scenario SSP3-7.0, hydraulic modeling of the Rhine in the Duisburg urban area, and the development of damage functions for heavy rainfall events as well as an integrated assessment methodology for climate impacts and adaptation measures. As a use case, dyke breach modeling was carried out in Duisburg as part of the stakeholder dialogue. There are current discussions to implement KLAUS into the geodata infrastructure of the city of Duisburg, accompanied by a political exchange process based on a policy paper.
Another focus is on target group-specific science communication for different audiences, for which the FiW has developed an AR model for low-threshold communication of climate impact adaptation content. Interdisciplinary findings are developed in particular during face-to-face workshops in Duisburg, Stolberg, Heidelberg, and Koblenz, or in collaboration with accompanying research at the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau-Roßlau. At the same time, the consortium is already communicating results to stakeholders and the public, for example at the “Green Infrastructure” network day of the Regionalverband Ruhr (RVR) in Essen, at the expert forums of the initiative „Klima.Werk“ in Duisburg, Bottrop and Gladbeck, at the annual Climate Adaptation Week, and at the Extreme Weather Congress and Climate Management Conference in Hamburg.
Funding / Supervisor: Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR, formerly BMBF), German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Project Partners: Research Institute for Ecosystem Analysis and Assessment at RWTH Aachen University (gaiac e.V.); geomer GmbH; Engineering company Dr. Siekmann & Partner mbH; Rhine-Ruhr Institute for social research and policy advice (RISP e.V.) at the University Duisburg-Essen; City of Duisburg
Latest news about the project at Webseite R2K-Klim+
Continue to Referenz R2K-Klim+
The City of Ratingen had already adopted a climate protection concept in 2017. As part of its update, the focus was to be broadened to include not only climate protection but also climate adaptation.
Together with GERTEC GmbH, FiW developed an integrated concept that outlines ways to reduce CO₂ emissions and make the city more resilient to heat, heavy rainfall, and other impacts of climate change. FiW was responsible for the topic of climate adaptation, in particular the analysis of existing measures, the development of adaptation strategies, and the involvement of administration, business, and citizens.
Project Partner: GERTEC GmbH
Funding: Stadt Ratingen
Continue to Integrated Climate Protection and Climate Adaptation Concept
As part of the DAS funding guideline, the city of Werdohl commissioned the creation of an integrated climate adaptation concept in 2024. Together with GERTEC GmbH, FiW spent a year investigating the vulnerability and status quo of the city of Werdohl in terms of climate adaptation, holding public events and expert workshops, and drawing up an implementation plan with specific measures. As the main result, the final climate adaptation concept was delivered to the city of Werdohl, with approval by the political committees and subsequent publication planned for the end of 2025.
Project Partner: GERTEC GmbH
Funding: Stadt Werdohl
As part of the DAS funding guideline, the city of Wermelskirchen commissioned FiW, GERTEC GmbH, and GEO-NET Umweltconsulting GmbH in 2024 to develop an integrated climate adaptation concept.
As part of the inventory and impact analysis and the accompanying participation processes – e.g., a public event and an expert workshop – FiW was particularly responsible for water-related climate adaptation issues. Therefore, existing interfaces with other municipal issues were identified, data bases (especially flood maps) were visualized, and proposed measures were developed. GERTEC GmbH lead the coordination process with the city and the development of the main strategy and implementation roadmap. Another work package involved the modelling of a detailed urban climate analysis, which was done by GEO-NET. The final integrated climate adaptation concept is currently in its final stages. The political coordination process is scheduled for the end of 2025, so that the concept can be published in the first quarter of 2026.