Data2Resillience – Real-time biometeorological observations for thermal comfort assessment at city scale

Climate change presents significant challenges for urban areas including critical threat to citizen’s health and thermal comfort. To enable equitable transformation of urban spaces urban stakeholders increasingly adopt data-driven approaches. Within the Data2Resilience (D2R) project we designed a biometeorological observation network at city scale in Dortmund to provide near real-time data to support data-driven approaches. For the network design we considered relevant parameters, such as the urban structure represented by Local Climate Zones, the population density, relief, green and blue infrastructure, public spaces of particular interest, and among further expert knowledge. Existing guidelines on network design and metadata collection were considered to achieve comparability of the measurement data across the Dortmund city area and possible future networks in the Ruhr-Region.

To ensure long-term maintenance and uptake of data driven approaches by the city, the network was implemented in city ownership. The installation of the biometeorological measurement equipment was coordinated in close cooperation with the city administration and the Smart City Dortmund in particular. The continuation of the network will be done through integrating the network infrastructure as well as the data pipelines into the existing structure of the Dortmund city administration, streamlining management and maintenance coordination.

The D2R biometeorological observation network is designed to support equitable climate resilience efforts in Dortmund. Further the D2R network’s spatial distribution contributes to the increased representation and visibility of vulnerable and undersupplied hot spots in Dortmund. Besides the design and implementation of the network first results will be presented.