ICUC12-35, updated on 21 May 2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-35
12th International Conference on Urban Climate
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Consideration of climate change in standards – facilitating adaptation to climate change for communities
K. Heinke Schlünzen1, Catharina Fröhling2, Ruth Heesen2, Julia Nickel-Kuhn2, and Andreas Rutz2
K. Heinke Schlünzen et al.
  • 1University of Hamburg, Meteorol. Inst., Hamburg, Germany (heinke.schluenzen@uni-hamburg.de)
  • 2VDI - Verein Deutscher Ingenieure e.V., Germany

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The various efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not yet sufficient to limit global warming to below 1.5 K, and the increase is likely to reach 2.6 to 3.1 K in the global average by the end of this century [1]. Urban areas increase night temperatures further compared to their surroundings (3 K (summer climate average) to 10 K (certain situations)) [2].  As urban areas with their high population and infrastructure density are particularly vulnerable to climate change, adaptation is essential to reduce or at least limit the negative consequences of climate change.

The Federal Climate Adaptation Act, in force since 1st of July 2024, states that adaptation to climate changes that already occurred or are foreseeable must be considered in planning and decisions by public institutions. The law specifies several sectors to act on, including local heat island effects. It also states that recognized standards that already consider climate change can be used for planning. Thus, standardisation organisations like the VDI – The Association of German Engineers – now face the challenge of considering a changing climate in their 2200 standards.

The approach pursued by the VDI is briefly presented, and it is explained how uncertainty in long-term climate change is considered. Examples are given that are relevant for urban areas, e.g. standards for calculating climate indicators, urban areas in climate change, heat action plan and recommendations for modelling the urban climate or dealing with conflicting objectives in urban planning (climate change, air quality and health, in particular pollen allergies).

[1] UNEP: Emissions Gap Report 2024. https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2024, last used 13.01.2025

[2] WMO (2023): Guidance on Measuring, Modelling and Monitoring the Canopy Layer Urban Heat Is-land (CL-UHI). K.H. Schlünzen, S. Grimmond, A. Baklanov (edts.). WMO-No. 1292, pp.88. https://library.wmo.int/idurl/4/58410 last used 12.04.2024.

How to cite: Schlünzen, K. H., Fröhling, C., Heesen, R., Nickel-Kuhn, J., and Rutz, A.: Consideration of climate change in standards – facilitating adaptation to climate change for communities, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-35, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-35, 2025.

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