Objectifying and standardizing urban climate analyses for climate-resilient urban planning

Cities and municipalities are particularly affected by climate change and its impacts. All Austrian cities therefore need to take measures. The planning sector in particular is called upon to provide appropriate adaptation services, as every spatial planning decision has a climatic impact, and the consequences of climate change have a spatial impact. Some Austrian cities have currently prepared urban climatic analysis and are partially integrating them in their spatial development policies. These urban climatic analysis usually contain two components: an urban climatic analysis maps and an urban climatic planning recommendation maps. As there are no standardized methods for the generation of urban climatic analysis worldwide the project “OSCAR - Objectifying and standardizing urban climate analyses for climate-resilient urban planning” aims to close that research gap by researching and preparing the basis for the standardization and objectification process. The OSCAR project has thus the following overall objectives: (1) Development of an objectified and standardized model for UCM, (2) Accelerate the assessment of urban climate conditions, (3) Provide the basis and method to make climate adaptation measures numerically and rapidly tangible on a city scale level, (4) Enable comparability of urban climate conditions of a city over time or with other cities and (5) Provide secured planning recommendations through validated methods. The overarching methodological approach is inter- and transdisciplinary as well as a user-centred. By combining individual contributions and methods from 3 scientific fields - natural science (meteorology, climatology), engineering science (planning) as well as social science (participation), OSCAR uses a mixed method approach to unite these crucial fields of science. The results of the basic research oriented project OSCAR will support both science and practice. The central outcome of the project is the creation of a scientific and methodological basis for the production of objectified and standardized urban climatic analysis.