The City and Extreme Weather: How Cities Should Respond to Climate Change

Abstract

The following essay focuses on the impacts of climate toward cities—and on the inherent restraints, which one has to deal with. There is today a necessity of strategies for urban resilience. These move away from the idea that space must be used in the most efficient way possible: instead, tolerances will be built in, buffers formed, which should lead at the same time to added spatially quantitative value. It is as right as it is necessary to develop a vision of climate‐friendly and CO2‐neutral cities and regions. On the one hand, one must ask how all of the uncertainties can be handled in the planning. On the other hand, one must engage oneself to anchor—more precisely, to better anchor—integrated climate protection and adaptation strategies to everyday activities: not only for regional planning or urban development, but also among private builders and property owners.