Adaptation to climate change in Swiss cities

The actual climate scenarios for Switzerland preview a significant rise in temperature, changes in the pluvial regime as well as an increase of extreme events as for example heat waves.

Because of their high density of population, buildings and infrastructure, cities are significantly touched by its consequences. In addition, city-specific situations and socio-economic developments can amplify the climatic changes. Such evolutions can be the increasing soil sealing, the heat island effect, as well as increasing population living in cities.

The project „Adaptation to Climate Change in Swiss Cities“ encourages the dialogue between cities and the Swiss government. During the project, the specific challenges of the cities are identified and possible measures to react are developed. The measures shall support the cities to reduce possible conflicts between adaptation measures and other urban developments and to benefit from possible synergies.

Within the projects, two workshops are organised to discuss these different aspects with several Swiss cities. Basic documents prepared before the workshops build the basis of the workshops; a final report will summarise the results of the overall project.