Saarland Regional Report - C-Change

C-Change also involved the implementation of a
“Landscape and Climate Change“ pilot project by the
Spatial Planning Department in the Northern Landscape
of Industrial Culture (NLIC). Two joint workshops with
local actors led to a set of adaptation as well as
mitigation measures for the sub-region. The measures
focus on nature and landscape, not least of all because
NLIC is the location of Germany’s very first federal largescale
nature conservation project to be implemented in
an urban-industrial area. Of particular importance here
are the involvement of local potentials and activities,
ensuring coordination with the large-scale nature
conservation project, and the development of initial ideas
for projects and measures. The project ended up with
an intermunicipal action programme.
Within the C-Change project Saarbrücken puts an
emphasis on the climatic relevance of open spaces.
Open spaces are of particular importance for the urban
climate and more accessible for adaptation measures
than urban architectural structures. A starting point
is provided by the Saarbrücken Open Space
Development Programme (OSDP), which has
established itself as a successful instrument of open
space policy since 2008. However, the spatial impacts
of climate change have not been integrated so far. On
this basis Saarbrücken participates in the German
Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs
and Spatial Development (BBSR) research programme
“Experimental Housing and Urban Development“
(ExWoSt) dealing with “Urban Strategies Towards
Climate Change”. The programme serves to examine
how cities across the nation can prepare for the
consequences of climate change. Saarbrücken is one of
nine model cities. The C-Change project provided a first
stimulus for offensively integrating mitigation and in
particular climate adaptation strategies in the Open
Space Development Programme, but also important
stimuli for an urban development which adequately
addresses climate change.
There were three main aspects pursued in the context of
the OSDP:
• Building on a vulnerability analysis for the overall city
and a well-founded assessment of the climatic relevance
of various types of open space, adaptation strategies
and options have been elaborated for the planning of
urban open spaces. That was the contribution of
C-Change. On this basis, concrete measures have been
developed in two urban districts as part of the ExWoSt
pilot project.
TITLE: Vulnerability of settlement areas in Saarbrücken
regarding heat stress (source: agl 2012)
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