Constellations (Policies, Planning and Governance)
Final Report Abstract
Previous research identified suitable policy and planning strategies for the adaptation of cities to heat risks. However, the implementation prospects of these strategies for heat risk reduction have hardly been studied in depth. The Research Module (RM) 5.1 “Constellations” examined multi-level governance and planning constellations and identified discursive, organizational and procedural driving forces and barriers to tackle urban heat in the city of Berlin. The main research aim was to critically evaluate regulatory approaches and instruments as well as relevant actors and their networks, technical innovations and the natural conditions. RM 5.1 examined the interplay of elements that currently play a crucial role in creating the heat-adapted city. Discursive integration of heat risks into urban planning and governance. German city authorities take up the topic of urban heat under the rubric of adaptation to climate change. This leads to certain policy preferences to tackle the problem. Policy strategies in Berlin and other German cities display a long-term orientation of mitigating urban heat by means of urban design. Short-term urban development measures that would focus on the adaptation to urban heat events such as cooling centers, drinking fountains and shading elements play much less of a role. The main goal is to abate the exposure to heat in the city. Reducing the sensitivity of the urban population, also possible by urban design, is often only targeted implicitly by strategic approaches. Social relations andbehavioral changes that determine the sensitivity to heat have yet to be acknowledged as important for heat risk planning and policy-making. Organizational integration of heat risks into planning and governance. Strategies to handle climatic risks are often developed by planning offices and city planning authorities missing the participation of lower authority bodies and important actors. Their integration is reduced to consultative forms of participation. Institution-building processes to bundle procedural knowledge gained in different projects and mainstreaming it into planning routines is missing. Climate change coordinators could work as facilitators for the organizational integration of heat risk policies. However, they often have a climate change mitigation focus also displayed in their professional background. Deficits of the organizational integration of heat policies result from the complexity of actors potentially involved in adaptation governance. In Berlin they led to compartmentalization processes of adaptation in the department in charge for urban development. This narrowed the scope of adaptation measures and raised potentials for conflicts with dominant urban development politics. Procedural integration of heat risks into urban planning and governance. According to the legislator a translation of heat risk policy into planning instruments has theoretically been achieved. However, procedural knowledge is missing at the level of administrative routines. Competing objectives and issue attention which lies on providing new housing space hampers the integration of heat risk policy. Conflicts that arise with other planning issues or political topics are hardly negotiated and possible synergies evaluated but often treated in a hierarchical order. Unlike noise heat is considered to be a short term problem and therefore lower on the agenda. Thresholds or “signposts for urban heat risks” to legally stipulate planning measures do not exist. It is largely dependent on involved actor preferences how much attention is given to the local climate in planning processes at the operational level. Procedural integration is focused on planning instruments. However, some enabling governance instruments such as the backyard greening initiative have (re- )emerged and integrated into policy making for climate change adaptation. Being centered on citizen empowerment they can raise adaptive capacity in the building stock but also reduce sensitivities. However, these instruments have distributive effects that potentially lead to socially and spatially exclusive adaptation.
Publications
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(27 May 2014): Shared knowledge-better planning. Constellation Analysis as a tool for local climate adaptation decision making, Urban Regions under Change: towards socialecological resilience (URC 2014), Hamburg, Germany
Mahlkow, N.; Donner, J.
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(12-14 May 2015): The governance of urban heat risk mitigation – overcoming cultural and political constraints for climate change adaptation in mid-latitude cities, The European Climate Change Adaptation Conference (ECCA), Copenhagen, Denmark
Mahlkow, N.; Kalt, T.
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(20-24 July 2015): The heat adapted city? A Constellation Analysis of urban governance and planning to tackle heat stress risks in mid-latitude cities, 9th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC), Toulouse, France
Mahlkow, N.
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(2015). Urban heat - towards adapted German cities? Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, 17(2)
Donner, J.; Müller, J.M. and J. Köppel
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(2016). Developing storylines for urban climate governance by using constellation analysis - insights from a case study in Berlin, Germany. Urban Climate
Mahlkow, N.; Lakes, T.; Donner, J.; Köppel, J. and M. Schreurs
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(2016): From Planning to Implementation? The Role of Climate Change Adaptation Plans to Tackle Heat Stress. A Case Study of Berlin, Germany. Journal of Planning Education and Research 1-12
Mahlkow, N. and J. Donner
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(2016): Urban climate and heat stress: how likely is the implementation of adaptation measures in mid-latitude cities? The case of façade greening analyzed with Bayesian networks. One Ecosystem
Sprondel, N.; Donner, J.; Mahlkow, N.; Köppel, J.
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(2016): Urbaner Hitzestress: Wie wahrscheinlich ist die Implementierung von Klima-Anpassungsmaßnahmen in der Bebauungsplanung? Naturschutz und Landschaftsplanung, ISSN: 1869-5191
Sprondel, N.; Donner, J.; Köppel, J.
