Background: Growing up in a Climate-Changing Era
I grew up in the city of Osnabrück in northern Germany. My experience of climate change is less snow and less fun in winter. I will never forget one Christmas holiday when I was at elementary school. The road before the house was completely covered in snow, about 10 centimetres. The cheerfulness I felt while playing in the snow is still vivid in my memory. I had been looking forward to such snow ever since, but I never found one.
Fortunately, I see my city taking action on climate change. For example, the city encourages efficient energy usage, is installing more places to charge electric cars, and has set up five new electric bus routes, called the M-Linien. These routes are scheduled at a reduced waiting time, making them a priority choice. Climate change is affecting every city, which increases the importance of adapting to the change.
My Understanding of Urban Research
Before I started the internship, my knowledge about urban research was limited to my geography class at school. I often questioned where the essays, statistics, and maps about cities came from. I had heard about the term city planning, but admittedly, I had never heard about urban research before I started my internship at the Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (ILS).
After reading through the institute’s research work, I learned that there are four research focus areas: sustainability, mobility, societal participation, and geoinformation. Take the topic of sustainability and climate adaptation as an example; I found out that climate change has affected every part of our lives – not only causing hot temperatures in summer time but also impacting agriculture, as climate change forces the sector to seek new farming methods.
Now, rethinking the job of urban planning, I see that urban research is more about using data and analytical methods to support urban planning. Additionally, urban planning doesn’t only include building housing and constructing infrastructure. There are also ‘softer’ criteria, such as newly rising social problems. Research and planning are two different parts of the procedure.
Engaging with Solutions: Deep Diving into Research Project CATCH4D
CATCH4D stands for Climate Adaptation through Thermographic Campaign and Heat Mapping. This project has developed innovative technologies to build 3D thermal models, with which property owners can be motivated and advised on measures to increase building energy efficiency. CATCH4D reaches its goal in three steps: first, using the technology to create a 3D thermal model; second, identifying possible energy-poor households so that citizens can get an insight into the heating situation of their buildings; and third, therefore, taking action to improve energy efficiency.
Furthermore, while reviewing this research project, I found that CATCH4D’s quantitative approach contrasts with the qualitative approach used in other ILS projects like Bin ich schon drin? Quantitative data is number-based – it can be counted and measured. Qualitative data, on the other hand, is interpretation-based, descriptive and related to language. CATCH4D uses data and models to promote energy efficiency in the neighbourhood, which is quantitative. Bin ich schon drin? uses inquiries to get honest feedback and interviews from the citizens about their opinions of social media to integrate the neighbourhoods, as much as possible. This can be categorised into qualitative.
By deepening my dive into the project, I discovered that CATCH4D shares the same goal as many ILS projects on climate adaptation solutions. All of these projects are closely associated, yet with distinctions. For example, unlike Just Grow, which takes place across six regions, CATCH4D focuses only on the neighbourhoods within the city of Dortmund. While Just Grow introduces new methods for six local areas, CATCH4D enriches contextual solutions on a small-scale level for a city.
Connection to the Local Community: My Contribution to the CATCH4D Project
On the evening of the 29th of January, I participated in the Thermographic Walk workshop in the Westerfilde district of Dortmund. 15 property owners from this neighbourhood were invited to the event. While our CATCH4D project team was walking with the property owners, we used a thermographic camera to demonstrate the building’s energy leaks. The thermographic walk provided a first insight into the building’s thermographic constitution. Later, we presented our main project product, the 3D thermal model of buildings for the city of Dortmund. During the workshop, I saw the property owners coming along with huge interests in improving their houses’ energy efficiency. Before the workshop, I would never have thought that so many people would be interested in looking at the performance of their own building. Since the main contributor to CO2 emission comes from buildings and their energy use, seeing so many people wanting to improve is very exciting, as it would help reduce CO2 emissions.
After the workshop, almost all property owners were willing to attend the follow-up energy consultation events, which indicates that the workshop was a great success. I’m proud to be part of the event and to have contributed by assisting the team, recording the coordination of the thermographic pictures, and taking pictures.
My Takeaway Messages and Suggestions
Before I started the internship, I was sure that pollution in our daily life comes mostly from transportation. This is not wrong, but by mistake I ignored household energy usage. On the internet or in class, people most often mention CO2 emission from cars. Through this internship, I was inspired to read through scientific reports and found that electricity and heating was always at the top of the list in most countries. For instance, in 2019, the usage of electricity and heating affecting climate pollution was 29%, 5% more than transportation. This is shocking, as energy pollution doesn’t feel that obvious as breathing in gas on the street. So, this might be why we would oversee the impact of energy usage.
I suggest raising more people’s awareness of this fact. Adjusting building energy consumption, such as heating, could be easier than reducing pollution caused by transportation. Often, the school or workplace isn’t near the living place, which makes it unrealistic to reduce car use in a short time. In this case, adjusting building energy usage and turning off the heating and light would already make an impact.
Because of the opportunity to join the thermographic workshop, I learned more about communicating with people who are already interested in climate change. Participating in a workshop could be very helpful for everyone, especially for intergenerational collaboration. At school, we have a climate adaptation enrichment program, where students come to each class to advertise their ideas, like recycling idle phones. This is a great platform where more ideas should be presented, such as improving building energy consumption.
Furthermore, concerning climate adaptation, I think international cooperation would be very important, like the cooperation I mentioned in Just Grow, as all cities need to adapt to climate change. I have always wondered how international cooperation on climate change is nowadays, and I found an answer. Cities could support each other with proven solutions and encourage each other to do further exploration. For instance, other cities could learn from the experience of the CATCH4D project.
My Wishes: The Urban Future Through My Eyes
Throughout this internship, I discovered that improvements in climate adaptation are already happening. Urban research is genuinely a place that could solve my worries about climate change. The effort to decrease energy usage at home and the climate adaptation enrichment at school are helpful collaborators. Workshops like the thermographic walk turns this cooperation into local conversations, encouraging both sides. This creates an improvement cycle, where continued efforts in each area – whether at home, at school, or in workshops – lead to sustainable solutions for the urban future. I will take my knowledge from these days and start saving energy at home. Meanwhile, I will share my experience with my classmates and encourage more people to value climate adaptation in urban areas for the future.
