The Future Cities mid-term Conference took place on 29th September 2010 in the Philharmonie Essen, Germany.

Heat island effects in summer or wetter winter with increased flash flooding are only a few phenomena which have great impacts on the urban living conditions. Especially city regions must find adequate responses and solutions to cope with the predicted climate change impacts.

But which strategies and measures are there to face the challenges of climate change?

Since 2008 the Future Cities partnership works together on joint solutions.

The project partnership presented the elaborated results during the mid-term Conference of the project: Amongst others the “Future Cities Adaptation Compass” – a guidance tool for developing climate-proof city regions – was presented, which is being developed jointly by the partners. The success in the pilot projects of the project partners visualized the practical implementation of adaptation and mitigation measures.

Dr. Stemplewski, CEO of the water boards Emschergenossenschaft and Lippeverband introduced the adaptation needs of the area. He stressed the point that the water boards pursue a pro-active strategy by planning and implementing no-regret adaptation measures.

In an impressive speech Dr. Youba Sokona, co-chair of the IPCC, widened the view beyond Europe – Climate change being a global challenge.

Following, the project partners of Future Cities shared their experiences of defining adaptation needs and implementing suitable measures. E.g. Hans van Ammers from the Dutch city of Arnhem explained the mapping of the urban heat island effects and the conclusions which were drawn for an urban heat attention map.

Press review: Listen to the interviews with project partners and conference speakers - by the EMSCHERplayer (only available in German)