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Department of Spatial Planning

Evaluation and scientific exploitation of the regional climate impact analysis Evolving Regions

The Evolving Regions project is coming to an end in July 2023 after more than three years and a cost-neutral extension. As a project, we are very proud of the results achieved and the reach that we have been able to achieve nationally and internationally. The focus in the last months was especially on the evaluation and scientific utilisation of the project results - for example, the results and findings were discussed with international climate adaptation experts at transnational workshops in 2023. The final conference EVOLVING23 focused more on the exchange with (municipal) practitioners.       
Within the framework of Evolving Regions, the IRPUD developed regional climate impact analyses (CIA) for seven districts from NRW participating in the project. Special attention was paid to the presentation of the results in order to convey the information to the practical actors in a way that is as comprehensible and tangible as possible. Using the software Tableau, the CIA was visualized as an interactive application, which can be viewed online and used directly by anyone (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/irpud).

© IRPUD, TU Dortmund
The final version of the climate impact analysis - exemplary excerpt (Source: IRPUD, TU Dortmund 2022: Climate Impact Analysis Evolving Regions Kreis Siegen-Wittgenstein).

The evaluation of our approach, the methodology and the results of the CIA were carried out continuously in direct exchange with the (municipal) stakeholders and in the context of a final user survey. Thus, the interactive visualisation is seen by most active users as a clear added value to conventional media such as geodata or static maps - even if the information density still poses challenges to some users. In a final project report, the procedure of creating the CIA was reflected upon and the most important learnings from the project were highlighted. The scientific exploitation of the results and findings from Evolving Regions on the CIA will take place on the one hand within the framework of international conferences (Dortmund Conference, EURA, AESOP), and on the other hand two scientific publications on the CIA are planned.