How to cite: Covaci, A., Kooli, M. F., Grupping, J., Verelst, J., Coenen, H., Top, S., De Paepe, G., and De Cruz, L.: LEGO Urban Climate Game: Engaging the Public in Urban Heat Island Awareness through Interactive Workshops, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-410, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-410, 2025.

Extreme heat disproportionately affects vulnerable communities, which often lack awareness of adaptation options and face barriers to meaningful transformation due to top-down governance. Limited financial resources, restricted community capital, and insufficient integration of local perspectives into policymaking further hinder progress. To address these challenges, innovative and inclusive methods are needed to engage residents and incorporate their voices into adaptation solutions.

This study introduces “Cool Xi’an,” a gamified survey approach designed to empower residents in Xi’an, China, to explore, evaluate, and provide feedback on urban heat adaptation options. Over 500 surveys were collected, incorporating gamified mechanisms such as scoring systems, scenario simulations, and financial constraints. The survey enabled participants to simulate decision-making processes, weigh trade-offs, and rank preferences, while also capturing qualitative insights as residents shared reasoning and localized knowledge.

Preliminary findings indicate that gamification enhances participant engagement and understanding of adaptation options. This approach fosters acceptance and confidence in adaptation options and provides policymakers with actionable, context-specific data to guide inclusive decision-making.

By bridging the gap between vulnerable communities and urban governance, “Cool Xi’an” offers a scalable framework for strengthening cities’ capacity to address extreme heat challenges. This study demonstrates how integrating public input into adaptation planning can deliver more effective and equitable urban climate governance.

How to cite: Lao, X., Istrate, A., and Pilla, F.: Cool Xi’an: Gamified Surveys to Empower Resident Engagement in Urban Heat Adaptation, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-190, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-190, 2025.

Recognizing the necessity for accessible urban climate modeling tools, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research initiated the development of a user-friendly solution nearly a decade ago to support adaptation planning. The objective was to create a tool applicable by non-expert modelers in municipal administrations, engineering consultancies, and academic institutions, ensuring its long-term availability and usability.

From 2016 to 2023, the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS) coordinated two funding periods dedicated to the co-development of PALM-4U, an urban climate model designed for practical application. Utilizing a transdisciplinary Living Lab approach, PALM-4U was co-developed in collaboration with 13 medium-sized and large German cities, two consultancies, and a broad network of research partners. While the first funding phase aimed at creating a first evaluated prototype, the second funding phase focused on enhancing practical applicability, capacity building, and devising a sustainable continuation strategy.

To facilitate PALM-4U’s transition into a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model post-funding, GERICS developed multiple implementation strategies. An initial conference to build a Community of Practice attracted over 200 participants representing a variety of stakeholders working in the field of climate-resilient urban development. The conference contained a mixture of talks, podium discussions, an Urban EXPO and discussion fora to stimulate discussion and exchange. A pivotal workshop during that conference engaged approximately 20 urban planning experts in discussions on the potentials of Living Labs to foster science-practice interactions. Key topics included practitioners’ needs and expectations from GERICS, as well as their own roles in sustaining the application.

The insights gained from this process are now being systematically structured and will be shared at ICUC12. This presentation will provide valuable lessons on how stakeholder involvement can drive the successful transition of scientific tools into operational practice, bridging the gap between research and real-world urban climate adaptation efforts.

How to cite: Steuri, B., Cortekar, J., Teichmann, C., Schubert-Frisius, M., and Schmidt, L.: Advancing Societal Engagement in Urban Climate Adaptation: The Co-Development and Operationalization of PALM-4U, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-691, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-691, 2025.

Effective engagement of diverse stakeholders is essential for advancing urban climate adaptation. However, the complexity of flood risk modeling often limits the ability of community members, decision-makers, and practitioners to meaningfully participate in adaptation planning. FloodAdapt is an open, interactive, physics-based decision-support tool designed to bridge this gap by making advanced flood and impact modeling accessible to non-experts.

FloodAdapt enables users to define and evaluate what-if scenarios, simulating how different compound flood drivers – such as storm surge, extreme rainfall, and river discharge – alongside future conditions – such as sea level rise and urban population growth – interact with urban adaptation strategies. By rapidly generating high-quality flood and impact maps, as well as equity-focused metrics, the tool supports participatory planning and informed decision-making. The user-friendly interface allows communities to visualize and compare the effects of adaptation options such as seawalls, green infrastructure, or home elevations, supporting deeper public understanding and engagement.

Through case studies, we demonstrate how FloodAdapt facilitates collaborative planning, allowing stakeholders to explore trade-offs and develop locally relevant, climate-resilient strategies. The tool’s ability to integrate social vulnerability data further strengthens engagement by highlighting disparities in flood risk and adaptation benefits across neighborhoods.

This presentation will showcase FloodAdapt’s capabilities, present use cases, and share stakeholder feedback, illustrating how it fosters inclusive and effective adaptation planning.

How to cite: Roscoe, K., Athanasiou, P., Winter, G., Rautenbach, S., and Blom, L.: FloodAdapt: Rapid what-if scenario modeling to advance stakeholder engagement in urban flood adaptation, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-740, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-740, 2025.

As Climate Change challenges threaten future quality of life, urgent action to mitigate CO2 emissions as well as to adapt to current and future risks is mandatory. Cities are crucial for both areas: mitigation, because 2/3 of the worldwide population live in urban areas and relate to 70% of global emissions; adaptation, because the settlements structure, mainly sealed areas, enhances the negative effects of climate change. Within the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action KNOWING [1] climate mitigation pathways, which represent timelines of specific interventions, are compiled for different regions and urban areas.

Over the past years cities have responded by defining strategies regarding mitigation and adaptation that identify measures for specific sectors. Although there is vast knowledge with respect to future impacts and possible mitigation and adaptation measures within different sectors (e.g. transport, energy, etc.), implementation remains inadequate. To overcome possible barriers, increased knowledge on potential measures and reduced uncertainties of their impact is crucial. Therefore, KNOWING combines a system dynamics modelling approach with a broad stakeholder engagement communication strategy, that accounts for target group specific communication channels. Thus, a KNOWING app for the civil society has been developed building on the storytelling approach for increased climate literacy, a decision support tool for politicians and administrative staff, and playful training for stakeholders from the economic sectors and politicians, as well as the knowledge base that includes all information and is built for representatives from science, policy and economy. The combination of knowledge exchange and communication tools is fed with quantified data and developed with local stakeholders to ensure their applicability and support in urban transformation.

[1] https://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en135/special/knowing-how-to-deal-with-climate-change

How to cite: Bügelmayer-Blaschek, M., Leone, M., Kaleta, P., Zach, M., Tovaas, K., Steger, M., and Salomon, N.: Climate Mitigation Pathways for Cities – enabling transition through knowledge exchange and communication tools, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-207, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-207, 2025.

In the current century, coastal cultural landscapes face significant challenges from both climatic hazards, such as sea level rise, increasing heatwaves, and heavy rainfall, and non-climatic threats like pollution and overtourism. In Europe, these landscapes are crucial not only for their economic and ecological functions and as valuable living spaces in their urban and sub-urban areas, but also for their cultural heritage, which provides knowledge, identity, and economic stability for local communities. Effective tools and concepts are required to address the challenges and specific needs of cultural landscapes and increase their resilience.

The Horizon Europe research project "RescueME" (GA ID 101094978) aims to tackle these issues by developing solutions to enhance the resilience of coastal cultural landscapes. One key approach in "RescueME" is the co-development of a serious game designed to create resilience strategies and engage with local stakeholders.

The serious game is co-created with five pilot landscapes, ensuring that it is tailored to the specific needs and contexts of each area. The serious game will then be applied in workshops with local stakeholders, i.e. community members, decision-makers, NGOs, and local experts. This participatory approach ensures that the strategies developed are grounded in local knowledge and are more likely to be effective and sustainable.

The serious game consists of several steps. First, the key elements at risk and relevant hazards for the cultural landscape are identified. Next, strategic objectives and indicators are defined to establish the overall strategy goals and identify the resilience status. Participants then play through scenarios in iterative rounds to identify potential resilience-building measures. Finally, these measures are combined into an overall resilience strategy.

This contribution presents the concept of the serious game and the approach of co-developing and applying the serious game within the "RescueME" project, highlighting its potential to enhance the resilience of coastal cultural landscapes.

How to cite: Milde, K., Lückerath, D., and Klose, A.: The RescueME Serious Game approach for participative resilience strategy development, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-858, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-858, 2025.

Climate change impacts, extreme events, and urban population growth in risk-prone areas, alongside urban extractivism, demand urban resilience-focused public policies. Addressing the climate crisis requires engaging diverse stakeholders and knowledge systems, moving beyond technical expertise. In Rio de Janeiro, since the 2010s, youth activist collectives and grassroots organizations have pioneered citizen-generated data processes to advance climate justice. This abstract highlights participatory research efforts through three strategies: collective mapping, social technologies, and local climate action plans.

Collective mapping processes make it possible to surface local vulnerabilities as well as potential solutions. An example of this is the “Cocôzap” (poop zap), led by the collective data_labe, which facilitates collaborative mapping of basic sanitation conditions in the Maré Favela through a WhatsApp number fed by community-generated reports.

Producing local knowledge and acknowledging local expertise through participatory action research is crucial to community empowerment and engagement. More than just simple reports, can be harnessed to strengthen practices and social technologies for greater resilience in the face of extreme events. Another such example comes from the "Visão Coop" project, which produced a flood response manual and trained local responders in the community of Queimados.

Connecting science and action, these groups are creating and putting into practice their own locally tailored climate action plans. Their agendas address existing challenges related to waste management, access to water, urban heat islands, and mangrove area recovery. Examples include the Maré Climate Action Plan, created by Redes da Maré, and the Agenda Realengo 2030, developed by Casa Fluminense.

Although these initiatives take place at the local scale, they offer a multi-scalar approach that acknowledges state violence and environmental racism among the structural causes of community problems. At the same time, strategies like these can also contribute to the design of evidence-based public policies that respond more effectively to contextual specificities.

How to cite: Marino, A. and Giemza, B.: Citizen-Generated Data for Urban Climate Resilience in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-420, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-420, 2025.

Whilst the issue of heat in cities and ways to adapt and mitigate have become prominent in public discourse, strategies for raising awareness about the causes and effects of urban micro-climates are lacking. This excludes residents from participation in debates about sustainable urban design and the creation of 'pleasant places'. We present the outcomes of a community engagement project designed to raise citizen awareness of the factors effecting the heterogeneity of urban climates and their health impacts. 

For this project, we designed a series of walks and workshops that used alternative photographic techniques to explore the interaction of non-visible solar radiation with the built and natural environment. These techniques include cyanotype printing, near-infrared photography and thermal imaging. This allowed us to introduce complex physical principles around the surface energy balance to non-expert participants. Participation in the activities and the ensuing discussions triggered critical consideration of the impact of urban environments on the experience of heat and ways to mitigate their negative effects. The outcomes of our activities led to the creation of an exhibition which provoked further public engagement over a period of three months with a variety of audiences including decision makers, architects, academics, local residents, students and community groups.

The design and conduct of these workshops was informed by contemporary research on urban heat adaptation and supported by public engagement funds aimed at translating research into practice to the benefit of east London communities.

How to cite: Brown, A., Agui, J., and Brousse, O.: A Pleasant Place: citizen engagement, urban climate and photography., 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-427, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-427, 2025.

The Heat Neighborhood Approach (De Wijkaanpak Hitte) is a collaborative effort in three neighborhoods of Rotterdam involving the municipality of Rotterdam, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond, crucial community initiatives, and residents. The project develops practical, community-driven strategies to enhance neighborhood resilience against heatwaves by building on existing knowledge and tailoring interventions to local needs. Over a year, various interventions—especially those focused on resident behavior and community engagement—were designed, tested, and evaluated for their effectiveness.

Existing national and local heat plans often fall short, partly due to their top-down approach. Neighborhoods of low economic status are particularly vulnerable, with limited green spaces, older, poorly insulated rental housing, and fewer resources to adapt. Heat is not seen as a priority for many residents, and organizations often lack sufficient preparation, emphasizing the need for tailored, collaborative neighborhood heat plans.

Neighborhoods differ significantly based on their physical and socio-economic characteristics, making customization essential. A key outcome of this project is the development of neighborhood heat plans for the three pilot neighborhoods, created by and with residents. These plans provide step-by-step guidance for mitigating risks during extreme heat and complement the Dutch national and local heat plans.

Crucial insights reveal that formal and informal networks vary across neighborhoods, with informal networks and neighborhood coordinators playing vital roles in successful heat adaptation.

To support broader implementation, the project developed a practical template that other neighborhoods and municipalities can use to create tailored heat plans. This framework helps address community-specific needs while promoting effective collaboration and decision-making.

How to cite: Chrzanowski, C., Zwitser, P., Eaisaouiyen, M., Wienese, E., van den Bogaard, J., van Bodegom, E., Verspeek, L., van Alten, K., Veldkamp, T., and Rosendal, H.: Tailored Neighborhood Heat Plans: Strengthening Community Preparedness through Collaborative Engagement, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-768, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-768, 2025.

This presentation will present an innovative model for how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can form a decentralized network to support multiple cities’ engagement with the public around climate action. Such a network has been shown to be capable of supporting cities’ individual engagement aims while simultaneously facilitating a consistent exchange of information around these activities so that each city benefits from and builds on one another’s engagement tools, resources, and findings. This model’s development is rooted in the experiences of the American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy’s (ACEEE’s) Energy Equity for Renters Initiative. Since 2022, ACEEE has provided 15 urban communities across the United States with technical assistance to reduce the carbon footprint of local rental homes while also preserving or expanding housing affordability. In nearly all cases, teams of city governments and community partners have engaged with rental property owners and residents as part of their efforts. In addition to providing a platform for open discussion between these teams, ACEEE has worked to facilitate targeted and well-timed exchanges of information so that cities get the most relevant and helpful information and tools for their near-term work

This initiative’s work has revealed that an NGO-led network can support each participating community in taking its own unique approach to public engagement while facilitating an exchange of information and tools from these processes across the network to save other member communities time and resources in pursuing their own public engagement. This approach and the public engagement work that has resulted from it has been shown to generate meaningful policy and program outcomes. This presentation will share the lessons that ACEEE has learned from its work and offer actions that other NGOs and cities can take to replicate such an approach.

How to cite: Samarripas, S.: Decentralized and Mutually Supportive City Networks to Further Public Engagement, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-959, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-959, 2025.

How to cite: Heikoop, R., Boogaard, F., Abrenica, B., Fornis, R., Borgonia, K., Ledesma, D., Nasara, J., Boer, E., and Oudendammer, T.: Enhancing Environmental Awareness Through River Challenges: A Case Study of Metropolitan Cebu, Philippines , 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-1052, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-1052, 2025.

In recent years, the world has undergone a significant transformation, from a realm of certainties to one filled with uncertainties and looming disasters. These catastrophes, which are both ecological and social, are largely attributed to the climate crisis caused by human activities. As a result, the future of cities and the planet is at stake, with the prospect of becoming uninhabitable. To address this urgent issue, local governments worldwide have taken action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. One exemplary initiative is the Barcelona City Council's Network of Climate Shelters, established in 2019. This network aims to prepare the
city for the anticipated rise in temperatures by transforming existing public spaces, such as libraries and schools, into climate shelters. What sets the Barcelona Network of Climate Shelters apart, at least in one of its modes of assemblage, is its collaborative approach. The citizens actively participate in the design and implementation of some of these infrastructures. This not only ensures that the shelters are efficient and effective but also fosters a sense of collective responsibility towards the climate crisis. By involving the public, the initiative not only prepares the city for climate change but also builds a more resilient citizenry capable of facing an uncertain future together.

How to cite: Estevez, B., Hidalgo, J., and Bonhomme, M.: Anticipatory action and future urban living in a context of increasing temperatures: an analysis from the Barcelona Climate Shelter Network, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-1002, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-1002, 2025.

Urban blue and green spaces are known for mitigating climate events such as heatwaves and floods, while offering co-benefits that build health resilience for society. However, these benefits are not equitably distributed, with vulnerable community members and deprived neighbourhoods often facing limited access to green and blue spaces. Additionally, these individuals are often excluded from planning processes. Our project aims to counteract these barriers by addressing the needs and preferences of diverse communities and integrate them in urban climate project planning processes through a participatory co-design approach supported by geoinformation systems (GIS) and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

Based on a systematic scoping literature review, we synthesized knowledge on the role of green and blue spaces in building resilience of vulnerable populations, particularly in the context of extreme weather events. Building on the resulting urban green and blue space for inclusive climate and health framework, we assessed the needs, perceptions, and barriers faced by vulnerable residents using mixed methods in Enschede, a mid-sized city in the Netherlands. The results inform the planning of AI-supported participatory co-design workshops engazing citizens and decision-makers in collaboration with Urbanist AI and the UT DesignLab. In a pilot workshop, students were involved in role-plays as personas, and jointly identified diverse needs related to thermal comfort, mobility, and safety. In another workshop, local citizens and decision-makers were engaged. This technology supported initiative brings together diverse perspectives from vulnerable groups and decision-makers, fostering collaborative and inclusive urban planning.

The knowledge generated in this process is disseminated through science communication, inform collaborative educational initiatives, and contributes to developing climate-resilient public spaces codesigned to enhance inclusivity, resilience, and well-being for vulnerable urban populations.

How to cite: Janeka, P., Schrammeijer, B., Sawungrana, A., Cerrone, D., Van Rompay, T., Martinez, J., and Anthonj, C.: Engageing Vulnerable Urban Populations in Co-Designing Climate-Resilient Public Spaces, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-1094, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-1094, 2025.

This presentation will provide an overview of the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC), a DOE-funded Urban Integrated Field Laboratory (IFL) based in Baltimore, Maryland USA. BSEC seeks a new paradigm for urban climate research. Inspired by the Urban Integrated Field Laboratory call to provide knowledge that informs equitable solutions that can strengthen community-scale resilience, we are building a people-centered, transdisciplinary IFL. BSEC begins with community priorities (human health and safety, affordable energy, transportation equity, and others) and city government priorities (clean waterways, decarbonization, functioning infrastructure) and designs observation networks and models that will deliver the climate science capable of supporting those priorities. This means that BSEC takes the form of an iterative collaborative cycle, in which an initial observation and modeling strategy is continuously updated in conversation with community partners. The guiding objective of this cycle is to produce the urban climate science needed to inform community-guided “potential equitable pathways” for climate action. In doing so, we address a number of fundamental urban science questions from across natural science and social science disciplines. This presentation will discuss BSEC principles and structure, the urban science questions been addressed, and present examples of engagement with stakeholders and decision-makers, community-driven approaches to climate mitigation and adaptation, community education and engagement, and scientific results.

How to cite: Zaitchik, B. and Waugh, D. and the BSEC: The Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC): Equitable solutions for climate adaptation in Baltimore City, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-238, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-238, 2025.

This paper outlines the participatory development of evaluation criteria and indicators for a transdisciplinary research (TDR) project, Policy and Implementation for Climate & Health Equity (PAICE). PAICE investigates complex systemic links between climate action, health, and health equity, focusing on translating evidence into UK policy and practice. TDR is increasingly used to integrate diverse disciplines and knowledge to tackle navigate, understand and address complex societal challenges like climate change. Within this project TDR is being adopted as our underlying theory in the development, delivery and evaluation of the project. The project brings together researchers in systems thinking, modelling, epidemiology, building physics, and members of the Climate Change Committee and regional government (the GLA). Evaluating TDR and the multiple facets of perceived success remains challenging due to the absence of standard methodologies, as disciplinary methodological and quality standards are often unsuitable. PAICE seeks to enhance societal engagement in climate change mitigation and adaptation research through ex-ante and ex-post evaluation techniques of TDR. This paper details the novel co-development of a monitoring, evaluation, and learning plan to track progress toward TDR processes, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. Participatory workshops and surveys were used to screen and assess evaluation criteria and indicators, involving researchers, statutory bodies, and local authorities. Indicators for research legitimacy, credibility, positioning for use, and TDR processes and outcomes were assessed against specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) criteria. The relative importance of criteria and indicators was derived, enabling disciplinary and group-level priority mapping. Understanding differences in disciplinary and organisational priorities supports deeper analysis of indicator performance across PAICE work streams. This enhances reflexive learning for all stakeholders throughout the TDR project and provides focused feedback on processes and outcomes related to mitigation and adaptation TDR research.

How to cite: Vakeva-Baird, S., Moore, G., Osrin, D., Unstead-Joss, R., Petrou, G., Milner, J., and Davies, M.: Co-developing criteria and indicators for evaluating a transdisciplinary climate and health project, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-642, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-642, 2025.

Improving Near-Term Climate Predictions for Social Transformation (Impetus4Change) is a Horizon Europe research project where urban practitioners, social scientists and climate modellers work together to improve the quality and accessibility of near-term climate information in cities and regions. Impetus4Change provides seamless climate information across timescales ranging from sub(seasonal) to a few decades at local spatial scales where impacts and risks are most keenly felt and where on-the ground adaptation interventions are being implemented.

Impetus4Change co-produces this highly localised near-term climate knowledge with stakeholders in four Demonstrator cities: Barcelona, Bergen, Paris, and Prague. The first step in the coproduction process was co-exploration, which included stakeholder mapping and initial discussions between scientists and these local stakeholders to understand how and what climate services may best fit the local context. This involved appreciating how each city currently approaches climate adaptation, its climate information needs and the current use of climate services to support the formulation of adaptation strategies and decision making. The users from the stakeholder group who were interested in working with Impetus4Change then helped to co-design mock-ups of climate services using existing climate data. This allowed profound discussions related to the structure, data post-processing and delivery formats expected for the final urban climate services at Adaptalabs (‘hackathons’ dedicated to co-producing urban climate services) and other participatory events. The new climate data produced during Impetus4Change was used to co-develop the final climate services. Running alongside these steps was the co-evaluation stage which included a focus on the coproduction process itself as well as the value of the end products. The results from these four-year case studies will form the climate services implementation and adoption support guidance pack for each demonstrator from which we will synthesise an overall roadmap of best practices for coproduction of urban climate services. 

How to cite: Bojovic, D., Pickard, S., Trascasa-Castro, P., Duzenli, E., and Baulenas, E.: Impetus4Change: knowledge coproduction for resilient cities , 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-760, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-760, 2025.

The Urban Design Climate Workshops (UDCWs), developed by the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), are collaborative initiatives that bring together urban planners, scientists, policymakers, and communities to advance climate-resilient urban development. Introduced in 2015, UDCWs are rooted in scientific assessments from UCCRN’s climate reports (ARC3.2, 2018; ARC3.3, 2025) and aim to integrate climate mitigation and adaptation strategies with social, economic, and environmental co-benefits.

UDCWs embed evidence-based approaches into standard urban planning and design. This process challenges the "business as usual" mindset, fostering climate resilience while ensuring equity and environmental justice. The methodology is data-driven and participatory, introducing as key components the concepts of urban climate factors - Efficiency of Urban Systems, Form and Layout, Building Envelope and Outdoor Surface Materials, Green and Blue Infrastructure - which identify the main drivers of anthropogenic carbon emissions and key features determining urban microclimate conditions.

UDCWs employ scenario-based prototyping to develop urban design solutions that reduce energy consumption, enhance public spaces and ecosystem services, and strengthen climate adaption. The methodology combines simulation and facilitation tools, such as GIS and 3D modeling, to assess climate risks, map urban heat islands and flood zones, and quantify co-benefits like biodiversity and accessibility. Simultaneously, stakeholder engagement tools, including collaborative mapping and co-design workshops, ensure that proposed solutions are based on community knowledge and priorities.

This multi-scale, interdisciplinary approach has been applied in global cities like New York, Rio de Janeiro, Durban, Paris, Naples, Barcelona, and Thessaloniki. UDCWs have been developed and refined through research projects including Erasmus+ “UCCRN_edu”, Horizon Europe “KNOWING” & “UP2030”, and NSF’s “City-as-Lab”. The UDCW framework represents a transformative step towards integrating climate science and urban action, fostering resilient, net-zero urban environments.

How to cite: Leone, M., Raven, J., and Nocerino, G.: Urban Design Climate Workshops: Methodologies and tools for integrating urban climate factors in planning and design practice, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-724, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-724, 2025.

Despite the growing climate risks and the presence of numerous urban adaptation strategies, the implementation of climate adaptation measures remains slow. Traditional stakeholders, such as local city administrations, often encounter complex and time-consuming processes, resulting in prolonged planning and implementation phases. However, citizens are increasingly engaged in shaping climate-adapted cities, enhancing the liveability of their neighbourhoods, and initiating DIY projects to transform urban spaces. The term DIY-Urbanism is closely related to guerrilla urbanism. Unlike other forms of tactical urbanism, and urban living labs, which follow more structured planning, DIY-Urbanism relies on informal, citizen-led interventions. This study provides (1) a concise review of the literature addressing DIY-Urbanism as a contributor to urban climate adaptation and (2) a critical evaluation of its effectiveness in improving outdoor thermal comfort, mitigating urban heat, and reducing flood risk. The analysis reveals that the specific role of DIY-Urbanism in climate adaptation has received limited attention in the literature. Based on the literature review, three types of potentially effective interventions were identified, covering nine specific measures: urban green (parklets, mobile trees, street greening, community gardens), urban blue (curbside cuts/rainwater harvesting, misting systems), and urban grey (sun canopies, street painting, street furniture). Most of these measures provide small-scale or medium to low effectiveness regarding outdoor thermal comfort, mitigating urban heat, and reducing flood risk. A key aspect of DIY-Urbanism is its capacity to engage citizens in climate adaptation efforts. Further research is needed to assess DIY-Urbanism’s role in climate adaptation and develop strategies for effective implementation.

How to cite: Jänicke, B.: Unconventional Solutions: Can DIY-Urbanism contribute to Urban Climate Adaptation?, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-941, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-941, 2025.

Urban climate data is increasingly produced by measurement networks, remote sensing platforms, or model outputs. Besides serving as an empirical base for scientific, practical, and political purposes, the potentials of urban climate data for communication and education remain often overlooked. Since 2018, the Urban Climate Group at University of Bern has been running a city-wide measurement network to detect intra-urban air temperature variabilities at high spatio-temporal resolutions. Using this data, multiple tools to raise awareness of heat-related risks among the public and approaches to educate pupils about climate change and its effects on cities have been developed in recent years. This presentation aims at providing insights into the interactive visualization tool "Bernometer" and what effects the resulting urban heat maps of Bern may have in educational contexts.

Herefore, we will on the one hand present the app “Bernometer”, which has been designed to provide an interactive map of Bern's urban heat island showing the past, present, and future intra-urban air temperature variability at a high spatial resolution (https://bernometer.unibe.ch). This allows the urban population not only to depict the urban heat stress at specific locations within the city, but also to receive heat alerts and recommendations about how to reduce individual heat stress through adaptive behaviour. On the other hand, we will present the outcomes of an educational intervention using local urban climate data to vary the extent of psychological distance of climate change within the context of urban heat stress. By analysing differences in cognitive, emotional, and behaviour-related responses across a close treatment and a distant treatment group, we investigated the "effectiveness" of proximized climate change education among Swiss adolescents.

Based on these two examples, we will draw multidisciplinary conclusions about learnings and future pathways regarding the usage of urban climate data in the context of climate change outreach and education.

How to cite: Gubler, M., Broennimann, S., and Tinner, N.: Urban climate data in outreach and education - multidisciplinary insights from Bern, Switzerland, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-184, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-184, 2025.

Part of TU Delft’s Climate Action program is developing climate action pedagogies at the classroom and course levels. This contribution presents our open pedagogical language that shares evidence-informed instructional design principles and teaching practices in which students not only learn about urban climate change and sustainability but, in particular, about intervening in society or industry (action!) and its effects in everyday practice. In addition to technical system knowledge, this type of education provides students with crucial ecological and social entrepreneurship skills.  

The building blocks of this language are so-called pedagogical patterns, which describe a specific (set of) instructional design principle(s) of a course or classroom setting. Each pattern is presented in a comparable way via a given template that asks for [i] a title, [ii] an illustration, [iii] a hypothesis or statement on the value this pattern brings, [iv] the evidence from teaching practice and/or the educational scientific knowledge supporting the pattern, [v] a brief description of practical implications when implementing or using the pattern, [vi] the relation to other patterns. Pedagogical patterns are not prescriptive; they show what educators could do pedagogically.

Our first pedagogical patterns are based on the teaching practices of our Delft Climate Action educators and focus on:

*citizen science approaches focusing on the adaptation of the urban area to the weather and climate of tomorrow.  

*interdisciplinarity for climate adaptivity in urbanised delta regions, where students work for and with a local government or stakeholder related to urban heat, drought, air pollution, and flooding.

* entrepreneurship in the built environment, where students develop a design and entrepreneurial plan for a sustainability challenge.

* action research focusing on socio-spatial inequality, diversity, resilience, and well-being for a climate challenge in a collaborative way with practitioners and community members.

How to cite: Rooij, R., van Esch, M., Droste, A., Goncalves, J., and Iuorio, L.: Urban Climate Action Pedagogies, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-347, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-347, 2025.

This presentation demonstrates the application of community-driven design methods to build capacity, and enhance local and city-wide resilience to climate challenges. The Green Infrastructure Design Studio graduate course collaborated with a community-focused composting organization in New York City on supporting their vision of urban resilience by improving urban soil quality through expansion of the organizations’ operations and identifying innovative ways of compost application in the city.

Planning and community partner engagement commenced prior to the beginning of the course with identifying shared priorities, time commitments and capacities. Resulting course schedule included multiple and diverse engagement opportunities between the students and the community partner, such as site visits, collaborative stakeholder mapping and co-design sessions, and public-facing workshops.

Interdisciplinary graduate students applied their professional skills to address multiple project dimensions, including site analysis, geospatial mapping, relevant policy analysis, funding priorities, job creation and community engagement. The design studio emphasized the interconnection between green infrastructure, climate adaptation, and environmental justice, addressing issues such as soil quality, stormwater management, heat vulnerability, workforce development, and green space accessibility.

This example shows how to democratize the design process and enhance students’ sustainability competencies by centering the needs of community partners, fostering meaningful engagement, and integrating interdisciplinary expertise.

How to cite: Dzyuban, Y. and Bloodgood, L.: Community-Driven Design for Urban Resilience, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-921, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-921, 2025.

Despite extensive research detailing how to reduce and adapt to climate change impacts in cities, urban planning and design-related solutions are often not put into practice. This implementation gap frequently stems from the limited involvement of both the general public and professionals. The need to create climate-sensitive cities has never been more urgent, yet turning available knowledge into action remains an issue. Planning policy can assist in the reduction of adverse effects of overheating, wind, direct solar radiation, and so forth, but this is dependent on the professionals’ understanding of how urban elements and their arrangements can change the resulting urban climate. This study explored built environment related education worldwide, specifically how exposure to urban climate education affects urban planning practice and policies produced around the globe. Methods adopted were an online survey (n= 84) aimed at built environment professionals, and interviews with urban climate academics (n=14). Results show that urban climate is being taught to professionals, but not in an effective way. Although planning policy has a direct role in the resulting urban climate, as planners have little exposure to urban climate education there is a lack of regulations that ensure professional practice leads to the desired outcomes. Rather, the decision to implement climate-sensitive responses is left at the discretion of urban designers and landscape architects. Through the exploration of built environment education across many different countries this study also uncovered best practice examples being taught to future built environment professionals during their undergraduate degrees. It demonstrates that societal engagement depends on stakeholders and decision-makers interest, which is determined by their own awareness and education.

How to cite: Herrmann, O.: The role of urban climate knowledge in planning and policy development: an international study of built environment higher education, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-845, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-845, 2025.

Rapid anthropogenic climate change in an increasingly urbanised world urgently requires new professionals with a scientific understanding of urban climate and ability to work within the planning system to manage and lead sustainable change. Educational approaches able to achieve this in a comprehensive manner are missing at present. In this paper, lessons from an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master programme we have successfully run since 2017 (Master of Urban Climate and Sustainability) are presented with the aim to highlight the approaches where thematic integration is achieved in practice. The programme has successfully integrated three thematic areas: Science (urban climate, data visualisation, nature-based solutions); Planning (urban planning, circular economy in cities) and Management (change management, responsible leadership, sustainability championship). Such a multidisciplinary education challenges the representatives of different fields to consider novel ways of joint implementation. The approach is centred on student embedding in the practice of urban climate management through internships and placement as well as problem-based learning in modules and thesis projects. We report the experience of this approach in stakeholder engagement, knowledge exchange with research end users, contribution to policy development as well as from the students’ own perspectives on employability, entrepreneurship and future career needs. Methods of study include industry engagement, alumni survey, and policy engagement surveys to highlight the key challenges facing the creation of ‘new’ professionals able to lead and manage urban climate actions and highlight opportunities where the knowledge could be integrated with urban planning practice in the here and now. Lessons for higher learning as well as continuous professional development are explored in terms of content, approach and future research.

How to cite: Emmanuel, R., Aarrevaara, E., Carroll, P., Maksheeva, A., Duenas, J. A., and Hughes, C.: Educating the next generation of thought leaders for urban climate and sustainability: lessons from an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master (EMJM) Action, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-116, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-116, 2025.