LIRCA: The new project on climate adaptation processes in regional networks in NRW

On 1 July 2019, the project "Roll-out innovativer Klimaanpassungsprozesse in regionalen Netzwerken in NRW (LIRCA)", funded under the EU programme "LIFE Climate Change Adaptation" and co-financed by the NRW Ministry of the Environment, was launched at the IRPUD. The TU Dortmund University is represented in the project by two independent research institutions, IRPUD and the Sozialforschungsstelle (sfs). Other project partners are the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu, Cologne), the Education Center for the Supply and Disposal Economy (BEW, Essen) and Prognos AG. The project will run until December 2022.

Climate change is already affecting North Rhine-Westphalia today. Although the relevance of climate adaptation measures is becoming increasingly clear, obstacles to their implementation can still be identified at the municipal and regional level. The main objective of LIRCA is therefore, with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, to promote innovative approaches to the implementation and long-term realisation of strategies to increase climate resilience and adaptation at the regional level. Climate adaptation and resilience are to be anchored as cross-cutting issues in the areas of urban planning, buildings and infrastructure as well as resource management in NRW with the help of inter-municipal cooperation (mainstreaming).

Roadmaps will be developed as a verifiable and adaptable planning, development and implementation instrument for regional climate impact adaptation (integrated roadmapping approach) on the basis of four pioneer regions that are expected to be similarly affected by climate impacts. These pioneer regions are: The district of Siegen-Wittgenstein, the district of Wesel, the district of Steinfurt and the region of Nordeifel. Six other regions are to follow as user regions in the course of the project.

The IRPUD is responsible in particular for the risk and vulnerability analyses and the region-specific climate scenarios within the framework of LIRCA. The region-specific climate scenarios also serve as an interface to the new climate model "KliMoPrax - Climate Models for Practice", which is the responsibility of the Sozialforschungsstelle (sfs).

Evolving Regions research profile
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