From Planning to Implementation? The Role of Climate Change Adaptation Plans to Tackle Heat Stress: A Case Study of Berlin, Germany

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Global climate change increases the necessity for mid-latitude cities to tackle urban heat. Climate change adaptation plans are common policy mechanisms to approach the issue. This paper studies the city climate development plan (StEP Klima) of Berlin, Germany, by using Constellation Analysis. We analyzed to what extent StEP Klima might trigger planning and governance processes for the implementation of heat stress measures. Berlin’s plan brought attention to the local risks of urban heat and possible strategies. To translate its aims into decision makers’ everyday governance and planning practice, institutionalized guidance and an activation of policy instruments is needed.DFG, 197674476, FOR 1736: Stadtklima und Hitzestress in Städten der Mittelbreiten in Anbetracht des Klimawandels (UCaHS

Urban climate and heat stress: how likely is the implementation of adaptation measures in mid-latitude cities? The case of façade greening analyzed with Bayesian networks

Urban heat is a challenge for mid-latitude cities possibly aggravated by global climate change making it necessary to adapt the urban fabric. Façade greening has been identified as an important measure to adjust the building stock and new buildings to adverse climatic impacts. Yet, little is known on factors that influence implementation probabilities for adaptation measures. Therefore, we tried to figure out the driving forces and barriers for implementation of façade greening applying the methodology of Bayesian networks. The article presents the Bayesian network as an analytical system to examine the probability for the implementation of adaptation measures by including expert opinions. The results show that experts in Berlin estimate the likelihood of an implementation of façade greening under current conditions at 2 %. The article also examines further supportive factors that exist to raise this comparatively low value. A scenario including financial incentives from a backyard greening program raises the chances to 14 %. However, BN results confirm that it depends on the factor of “willingness” of involved actors and the right combination of supportive factors, as there are no regulations to fix the implementation of a façade greening legally

Design considerations in a clinical trial of a cognitive behavioural intervention for the management of low back pain in primary care : Back Skills Training Trial

Background Low back pain (LBP) is a major public health problem. Risk factors for the development and persistence of LBP include physical and psychological factors. However, most research activity has focused on physical solutions including manipulation, exercise training and activity promotion. Methods/Design This randomised controlled trial will establish the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a group programme, based on cognitive behavioural principles, for the management of sub-acute and chronic LBP in primary care. Our primary outcomes are disease specific measures of pain and function. Secondary outcomes include back beliefs, generic health related quality of life and resource use. All outcomes are measured over 12 months. Participants randomised to the intervention arm are invited to attend up to six weekly sessions each of 90 minutes; each group has 6–8 participants. A parallel qualitative study will aid the evaluation of the intervention. Discussion In this paper we describe the rationale and design of a randomised evaluation of a group based cognitive behavioural intervention for low back pain

The effectiveness of a clinically integrated e-learning course in evidence-based medicine: A cluster randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the educational effects of a clinically integrated e-learning course for teaching basic evidence-based medicine (EBM) among postgraduates compared to a traditional lecture-based course of equivalent content. METHODS: We conducted a cluster randomised controlled trial in the Netherlands and the UK involving postgraduate trainees in six obstetrics and gynaecology departments. Outcomes (knowledge gain and change in attitude towards EBM) were compared between the clinically integrated e-learning course (intervention) and the traditional lecture based course (control). We measured change from pre- to post-intervention scores using a validated questionnaire assessing knowledge (primary outcome) and attitudes (secondary outcome). RESULTS: There were six clusters involving teaching of 61 postgraduate trainees (28 in the intervention and 33 in the control group). The intervention group achieved slightly higher scores for knowledge gain compared to the control, but these results were not statistically significant (difference in knowledge gain: 3.5 points, 95% CI -2.7 to 9.8, p = 0.27). The attitudinal changes were similar for both groups. CONCLUSION: A clinically integrated e-learning course was at least as effective as a traditional lecture based course and was well accepted. Being less costly than traditional teaching and allowing for more independent learning through materials that can be easily updated, there is a place for incorporating e-learning into postgraduate EBM curricula that offer on-the-job training for just-in-time learning. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registration number: ACTRN12609000022268

SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity are associated with genetic variants affecting gene expression in a variety of tissues

Variability in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity between individuals is partly due to genetic factors. Here, we identify 4 genomic loci with suggestive associations for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and 19 for COVID-19 disease severity. Four of these 23 loci likely have an ethnicity-specific component. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals in 11 loci colocalize with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) associated with the expression of 20 genes in 62 tissues/cell types (range: 1:43 tissues/gene), including lung, brain, heart, muscle, and skin as well as the digestive system and immune system. We perform genetic fine mapping to compute 99% credible SNP sets, which identify 10 GWAS loci that have eight or fewer SNPs in the credible set, including three loci with one single likely causal SNP. Our study suggests that the diverse symptoms and disease severity of COVID-19 observed between individuals is associated with variants across the genome, affecting gene expression levels in a wide variety of tissue types

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

HPV.edu study protocol: a cluster randomised controlled evaluation of education, decisional support and logistical strategies in school-based human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination of adolescents

Background The National Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Program in Australia commenced in 2007 for females and in 2013 for males, using the quadrivalent HPV vaccine (HPV 6,11,16,18). Thus far, we have demonstrated very substantial reductions in genital warts and in the prevalence of HPV among young Australian women, providing early evidence for the success of this public health initiative. Australia has a long history of school-based vaccination programs for adolescents, with comparatively high coverage. However, it is not clear what factors promote success in a school vaccination program. The HPV.edu study aims to examine: 1) student knowledge about HPV vaccination; 2) psycho-social outcomes and 3) vaccination uptake. Methods/Design HPV.edu is a cluster randomised trial of a complex intervention in schools aiming to recruit 40 schools with year-8 enrolments above 100 students (approximately 4400 students). The schools will be stratified by Government, Catholic, and Independent sectors and geographical location, with up to 20 schools recruited in each of two states, Western Australia (WA) and South Australia (SA), and randomly allocated to intervention or control (usual practice). Intervention schools will receive the complex intervention which includes an adolescent intervention (education and distraction); a decisional support tool for parents and adolescents and logistical strategies (consent form returns strategies, in-school mop-up vaccination and vaccination-day guidelines). Careful process evaluation including an embedded qualitative evaluation will be undertaken to explore in depth possible mechanisms for any observed effect of the intervention on primary and secondary outcomes. Discussion This study is the first to evaluate the relative effectiveness of various strategies to promote best practice in school-based vaccination against HPV. The study aims to improve vaccination-related psychosocial outcomes, including adolescent knowledge and attitudes, decision-making involvement, self-efficacy, and to reduce fear and anxiety. The study also aims to improve school vaccination program logistics including reduction in time spent vaccinating adolescents and increased number of consent forms returned (regardless of decision). Less anxiety in adolescents will likely promote more efficient vaccination, which will be more acceptable to teachers, nurses and parents. Through these interventions, it is hoped that vaccination uptake will be increased. Trial registration Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12614000404628, 14.04.2014. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2168-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

A first update on mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

peer reviewe

Treibende Kräfte und Barrieren für Anpassungsstrategien gegen den urbanen Hitzestress am Beispiel Berlin, Deutschland

Climate change is here and mitigation efforts will not be enough to stop it. We need to adapt to its unavoidable impacts. At the same time, increasing anthropogenic influence on urban climates is leading to worsening urban heat stress. Increased amounts of impervious area, dark surfaces, and the barrier effect of large buildings reduce the ability of especially dense, inner-city areas to cool themselves. The effects of climate change inside the city can vary greatly across different neighborhoods. This is due to the diverse micro- and macroclimates within a city and their unique ecological and meteorological conditions. Urban heat islands, for example, can exhibit temperatures up to four or five Kelvin hotter than surrounding regions and, therefore, threaten the health and the lives of urban citizens. Three quarters of Europeans live in cities. Nevertheless, despite intensifying attention to the issues of heat stress and climate adaptation, CO2 reduction remains the primary focus of public policy. Whether cities are ready to take on the challenge of responding to these threats is a significant concern for the future. Germany is known for having numerous regulations, laws, programs, and institutions; and the situation surrounding climate change is no different. Whether and how all these legal and organizational features are used in practice and to what extent they further the success of adaptation work needs more investigation. In the framework of the German Research Foundation Research program 1736 Urban Climate and Heat Stress in mid-latitude cities in view of climate change (UCaHS), this work focuses, specifically on the treatment of these efforts in urban planning, specifically related to landscape, environmental, and land-use planning. It remains the case that planning and public policy lack an adequate body of knowledge about how to tackle urban heat stress, both legally and in the built environment. The administrative structure, legal context, and actions of major stakeholders were analyzed to help identify possible heat stress prevention and adaptation strategies, as well as the driving forces for and obstacles to their implementation. The climate adaptation plans of all German major cities and cities with a population density of 2,000 residents/ km2 and a population of at least 200,000 were evaluated to help illuminate how adaptation measures for heat stress have been implemented. Results showed a clear trend: despite the advancements made through the recent adoption of so many climate-related plans and programs, the movement towards adaptation to climate change is still cutting its teeth. Mitigation is still favored over real adaptation. Among the adaptation strategies that were chosen, so called ‘no regret’ strategies like greening or unsealing were preferred, i.e. those that were economically, ecologically, and socially useful, independent of their connection to climate change. Our study area, Berlin, was chosen as the best city for a case study about the role of climate adaptation plans in the implementation of adaptation measures. Berlin is Germany’s most populous city and is well-suited to the study because of its characteristic heterogeneity. To identify the driving forces and barriers for adaptation measures, we used Constellation Analysis and Bayesian Network methodologies. Constellation Analysis helps bridge interdisciplinary borders, incorporating all actors (persons or groups), symbols (laws or guidelines), institutions, and other elements (like green roofs or façade greening) in a system and depicting their relationships. To identify the set screws and the likelihood for the implementation of adaptation measures, we used Bayesian Networks. In order to gain the necessary knowledge for these methods, semi structured expert interviews and workshops were conducted in addition to document analysis. In order to investigate the role of adaptation plans at the various planning levels, the City Climate Development Plan of Berlin was analyzed as an example. Constellation Analysis showed that connections between the different actors, institutions, and tools involved in adaptation planning and implementation are still inadequate. It also highlighted the individual block level as the planning stage most relevant for the implementation of adaptation measures. In a further step and in cooperation with the Research Module 3.2 and 5.1 of the UCaHS Projekt, three scenarios were prepared using the constellation analysis. 1. A scenario with little political attention for the reduction of urban heat. 2. A scenario with political focus on the city center. 3. A scenario with political efforts for heat reduction for the entire city. The aim was to develop governance storylines in order to identify possible ways of dealing with urban heat. These enable decision-makers to look into the future and, thus, to adjust their behavior. In previous analyses, the local land-use plan level was seen as the most relevant for the implementation of adaptation measures. This leads to the question of whether adaptation concerns can successfully gain hold in urban planning and land-use plans. How will these measures be implemented? Urban and environmental planning play a vital role in this process. Bayesian Network analysis was used to explore the likelihood of the development of climate-adapted local land-use plans. This method depicts initial systems and the likelihood of certain outcomes in order to define networks of probabilities. The process relied on expert opinions gathered in numerous semi structured interviews at all levels with the Berlin stakeholders who are involved with implementation of the local land-use process. The analysis showed that the chances of the implementation of adaptation factors rely on a combination of different factors. These include the presence of investors and of an environmental assessment, as well as the individual and often very situational decisions made by the person responsible for the implementation of the plan. In order to make an environmental impact statement, and therefore the end assessment, mandatory, § 13a of the Federal Building Code would need to be changed. But it is important the keep in mind that the presence of rules in the Federal Building Code are not enough to drive adaptation – informed and dedicated stakeholders on all planning levels and in the population are also needed. In Berlin, adaptation has not been a significant part of formal city and regional planning documents and processes. These administrative tools do, however, contain measures that could address adaptation, though they do not directly mention it. Unlike the formal instruments, the informal City Climate Development Plan includes many comprehensive strategies to deal with the effects of climate change. The development of informal plans like the City Climate Development Plan, KONKRET, in summer 2016 which shows exact recommendations how to implement adaptation measures, or other programs like environmental justice studies and the climate planning details map also hint at progress. Such work to expand adaptation knowledge and strategies is still young. As long as an action is voluntarily, though, it will only be taken up by those who already understand its purpose and benefit from it. The others, who don’t know about or are not interested in adaptation, need to be given concrete and binding guidelines. A new round of policies, including the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the amendments to the landscape planning programs in summer 2016, and the planned adoption of the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Program, which are at least obligatory for the public authorities, will all show how Berlin intends to tackle urban heat stress adaptation in the future.Der Klimawandel ist ein Thema, das spätestens seit den aufsehenerregenden Berichten des Internationalen Klimarates IPCC im Jahre 2007 große Besorgnis auslöste. Unvermindert steigt die globale Durchschnittstemperatur, aber ebenso unvermindert wachsen auch die Emissionen der sogenannten Treibhausgase weiter, die für die Erwärmung ursächlich sind. Die Folgen des Klimawandels sind weltweit unübersehbar und fordern neben den Strategien zum Klimaschutz (Mitigation) auch eine Anpassung an dessen unvermeidbaren Folgen (Adaption). Die in den Städten zunehmende Bebauung von Freiflächen, sowie die Zunahme von dunklen Oberflächen und die Barrierewirkung von Gebäuden führen zu einer reduzierten Durchlüftung und reduzierten Abkühlung in der schon meist sehr verdichteten Innenstadt. Auch wirkt sich der Klimawandel innerhalb der heterogenen Stadtstrukturen räumlich sehr unterschiedlich aus. Dies liegt vor allem an den groß- wie kleinräumig verschiedenen biometeorologischen Bedingungen, die innerhalb einer Stadt wirken. Die sich so in Städten bildenden Hitzeinseln gefährden durch die im Vergleich zum Umland bis zu vier bis fünf Kelvin höheren Temperaturen die Gesundheit der Bevölkerung. Neben der erhöhten Sterblichkeit kommt es zur Einschränkung der Arbeitsproduktivität, die wir wirtschaftlich gar nicht beziffern können. Dreiviertel der Europäer leben in Städten – planerische Maßnahmen, um Hitzestress zu vermeiden, werden somit mehr und mehr gebraucht, um eine Entlastung der Bevölkerung zu erwirken und die Risiken und Gefahren einzugrenzen. Hierbei sind Städte wie beispielsweise Berlin gefragt, sich mit ihrer individuellen Betroffenheit auseinanderzusetzen. In Deutschland werden zahlreiche Gesetze, Richtlinien und Programme zum Klimawandel verabschiedet. Ob diese rechtlichen und organisatorischen Instrumente in der Praxis verwendet werden und in welchem Umfang, wurde hier untersucht. Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen zu den Folgen als auch der Anpassung an den Klimawandel mit Hilfe von Planungsinstrumenten wurden publiziert. Ob die von den Städten verabschiedeten raumspezifischen Planungen insbesondere in Bezug auf das Instrumentarium der Landschafts-, Umwelt- und Stadtplanung diesen Erkenntnissen gerecht werden, ist jedoch unklar und lag deshalb, im Rahmen des DFG Forschungsprojektes 1736 Urban Climate and Heat Stress in mid-latitude cities in view of climate change (UCaHS), im Fokus dieser Arbeit. Es stellt sich die Frage, in welcher Weise deutsche Städte Anpassungsmaßnahmen in Bezug auf den urbanen Hitzestress implementiert haben. In einer Analyse mittels eines Kriterienkataloges wurden alle Anpassungspläne aus Städten ausgewertet, welche entweder Landeshauptstädte oder Städte mit über 200.000 Einwohnern und einer Bevölkerungsdichte ab 2.000 Einwohner pro km² sind. Die untersuchten Städte zeigten einen klaren Trend für Maßnahmen zum Klimaschutz, gegenüber Maßnahmen zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel. Bei den Anpassungsmaßnahmen zeichnete sich eine klare Tendenz zu so genannten No-Regret-Maßnahmen ab, wie beispielsweise Entsiegelung oder die Pflanzung von Gehölzen, die unabhängig vom Klimawandel ökonomisch, ökologisch und sozial auch auf lange Sicht sinnvoll sind. Im nächsten Schritt wurde der Stadtentwicklungsplan Klima von Berlin (StEP Klima) näher analysiert. An seinem Beispiel wurde die Rolle von Anpassungsmaßnahmen an den Klimawandel in den einzelnen Planungsebenen analysiert. Sowohl zur Analyse des Stadtentwicklungsplans Klima (StEP Klima) als auch zur Entwicklung von drei Szenarien wurde der Ansatz der Konstellationsanalyse verwendet. Die Konstellationsanalyse dient als interdisziplinäres Brückenkonzept, welches die Akteure (Personen und Gruppe etc.), Symbole (Gesetze und Leitfäden etc.), technische (Erhöhung des Albedo Wertes, Fassaden- und Dachbegrünung etc.) und natürliche Elemente (Klima und Hitzestress etc.) analytisch erfasst und in Beziehung zueinander setzt. Die Konstellationsanalyse besteht aus Beziehungen und Wechselbeziehungen zwischen den Elementen der Konstellation. Die für die Konstellationsanalyse erforderlichen Interviews zeigten, dass in Berlin noch keine hinreichenden Verbindungen zwischen den relevanten Akteuren, Instrumenten und Kontexten wie beispielsweise ein Wissensaustausch zwischen dem Senat und den Berliner Bezirken vorhanden ist. Anders als bei den formellen Instrumenten, wie dem Bebauungsplan, beinhaltet der informelle StEP Klima umfassende Maßnahmen, um auf die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels zu reagieren. Problematisch ist jedoch, dass der Plan kaum bis keine Beachtung findet und so immer noch keine Anpassung an den urbanen Hitzestress in Berlin stattfindet. Im Rahmen der Interviews zeigte sich, dass die Bebauungsplanung als die Relevanteste angesehen wird, um Maßnahmen zur Anpassung verbindlich umzusetzen. In einem weiteren Schritt, in Zusammenarbeit mit den Research Modulen 3.2 und 5.1 des UCaHS Projektes, wurden mit Hilfe der Konstellationsanalyse drei Szenarien erstellt. 1. Ein Szenario mit wenig politischer Aufmerksamkeit auf den urbanen Hitzestress und die Initiierung von Anpassungsmaßnahmen. 2. Ein Szenario mit Fokus auf die Innenentwicklung und der Implementierung der vorgeschlagenen Anpassungsmaßnahmen aus dem Stadtentwicklungsplan Klima. 3. Ein Szenario mit politischen Bestrebungen, Anpassungsmaßnahmen gegen den urbanen Hitzestress in der gesamten Stadt mit Hilfe des Stadtentwicklungsplans Klima umzusetzen. Hierbei war es das Ziel, politische Handlungsstränge zu entwickeln, wie beispielsweise eine gesetzliche Verpflichtung die Maßnahmen des StEP Klima umzusetzen, um so mögliche Wege aufzuzeigen, mit städtischen Hitzerisiken umzugehen. Die Ebene des Bebauungsplans wurde in den vorherigen Schritten als die für die Implementierung von Anpassungsmaßnahmen relevanteste gesehen. Hier stellt sich die Frage, ob diese Anpassungskonzepte des StEP Klima tatsächlich auf der Ebene der Bauleitplanung Eingang finden? Um die Erfolgswahrscheinlichkeiten für einen klimaangepassten Bebauungsplan oder auch die Umsetzung von Anpassungsmaßnahmen zu ermitteln, wurde die Methodik des Bayesschen Netzwerkes verwendet. Darunter sind Wahrscheinlichkeitsnetzwerke zu verstehen, die Ausgangssysteme, wie die Erstellung eines Bebauungsplanes, analytisch abbilden und Wahrscheinlichkeiten für die Erreichung gesetzter Ziele, der Umsetzung der Anpassungsmaßnahmen des StEP Klima, abzubilden helfen. Um die Tendenzen für die Umsetzung zu ermitteln, wurden zahlreiche halbstrukturierte Interviews mit allen am Bebauungsplanverfahren beteiligten Akteuren durchgeführt. Bei der Analyse zeichnete sich ab, dass die Chance Anpassungsmaßnahmen, wie beispielsweise die Fassadenbegrünung, zu implementieren von einer Kombination aus verschiedenen Faktoren abhängig ist: Dazu zählen sowohl das Vorhandensein eines Investors der ein Bauvorhaben umsetzen möchte, die oft situativ und im Einzelfall personengebundenen Entscheidungen der Planbearbeiter, der Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung als auch das Vorhandensein eines Umweltberichtes. Die Öffentlichkeit kann politischen Druck auf die Entscheidungsträger ausüben und verweist auf eventuelle Defizite. Der Umweltbericht bildet die Grundlage für die naturschutzfachliche Einschätzung des Gebietes. Auch können in diesem Klimamaßnahmen verankert werden. Eine Barriere für Anpassungsmaßnahmen stellt laut den Interviews der §13a des Baugesetzbuches dar. Dieser hat dazu geführt, dass gesetzeskonform weniger Umweltprüfungen in der Innenstadt Berlins durchgeführt wurden. §13a BauGB soll eine Erleichterung von Planungsvorhaben für die Innenentwicklung der Städte sein. Wenn § 13a greift, muss kein Umweltbericht erstellt werden. Für einen klimawandelangepassten Bebauungsplan muss dieser Paragraph bei der Novellierung des BauGB entsprechend geändert werden. Jedoch wird ein klimaangepasster Bebauungsplan nicht allein durch das Vorhandensein der Vorgaben im Baugesetzbuch erstellt, sondern bedarf wacher Akteure in den Planungsebenen als auch in der Bevölkerung. Bisher spielt die Anpassung an den Klimawandel in den formalen Instrumenten und Abläufen der Umwelt-, Stadt- und Regionalplanung in Berlin keine große Rolle, obwohl der informelle Stadtentwicklungsplan Klima (StEP Klima) viele umfassende Strategien zur Bewältigung der Auswirkungen des Klimawandels enthält. Es zeigen sich allerdings Fortschritte in der Entwicklung von informellen Plänen, wie das Beispiel des Stadtentwicklungsplans Klima KONKRET (StEP Klima KONKRET) aus dem Sommer 2016 belegt. Dieser gibt erstmals Handlungshinweise wie eine Umsetzung von Anpassungsmaßnahmen konkret an einem Beispiel erfolgen kann. Ebenso ist die Fortführung von Planungshinweiskarten zum Thema Umweltgerechtigkeit und Klima als Fortschritt in diese Richtung zu werten. Aber noch stehen die Bemühungen, die Anpassungen an den Klimawandel umzusetzen, in den Kinderschuhen. Um die Anpassung an den Klimawandel auf allen Ebenen umzusetzen, muss diese verbindlich werden. Das Energiewendegesetz, die Novellierung des Landschaftsprogramms im Sommer 2016 oder die geplante Verabschiedung des Berliner Energie- und Klimaschutzprogramms (BEK) die zumindest behördenverbindlich sind, zeigen, welche Rolle die Anpassung in Berlin an den urbanen Hitzestress zukünftig in Berlin der Hauptstadt Deutschlands einnehmen wird.DFG, FOR 1736, Stadtklima und Hitzestress in Städten der Mittelbreiten in Anbetracht des Klimawandels (UCaHS