Providing urban climate analyses to support climate sensitive urban planning and climate change adaptation

Urban areas are particularly affected by climate change due to continuing urban development and an increased occurrence of extreme weather events like heat waves that lead to increasing heat stress on urban population. Furthermore, the occurrence of heavy rain events and dry periods are expected to rise, posing additional challenges to cities because sealed surfaces inhibit the infiltration of water into the soil and thus increase storm water runoff and reduce the water availability for plants. The project GreenAdaptation, funded by the Austrian Climate Research Program (ACRP), examines crucial steps necessary to support climate change adaptation and to develop urban planning recommendation and climate analysis maps for cities and municipalities, as they provide an important tool to support urban planners and local administrations towards decision making and to facilitate future urban planning processes.

Urban climate analyses represent an essential component in the development of urban planning recommendation maps. Here, we focus on already existing climatological datasets as well as urban climate modelling tools. To gather pre-existing knowledge regarding temperature and precipitation change, a set of climate indices with respect to heat, heavy rainfall and drought are selected together with practitioners implementing adaptation measures. The climate indices are calculated using available observational datasets from the Austrian semi-automatic meteorological station network (TAWES) and Austrian climate scenarios (OEKS15) to assess the past and indicate future development for the chosen municipality. Urban climate simulations carried out by the urban climate model MUKLIMO_3, developed by DWD (German Meteorological Service), are used to analyze overheating and to identify areas particularly affected by heat, taking into account city-specific structures and land use information, as well as meteorological conditions. Furthermore, a digital elevation model is analyzed to identify areas potentially prone to flooding. Merging the derived maps will indicate critical zones prone to extreme weather impacts, but also areas with a high synergy potential for climate adaptation.

The methodological framework for the consolidation and integration of the analyses into urban planning recommendation maps will be demonstrated and results of the urban climate analysis will be shown for the Municipality of Perchtoldsdorf, Lower Austria.