June 2, 2023
Finally: summer is coming! Every ray of sunshine is still balm for the soul after the long period of cloudy winter days. But if the rising temperatures seem pleasant at first, this can quickly change – and the increasing solar radiation leads to heat stress. In cities in particular, which are characterized by a high degree of sealing and limited green spaces, the heat builds up very quickly and leads to (health) problems for citizens. What can be done about this with data?
As a result of climate change, cities are increasingly struggling with periods of intense heat and sporadic heat. Rising temperatures put a strain on people and the environment and are already a major challenge for many cities. A further increase is to be expected in the coming years. Cities and municipalities must therefore respond to the acute pressure to act.
Heat monitoring can be a great support here: through targeted observation and documentation, specific points where the heat builds up in the city – so-called heat islands – can be identified. Differentiated statements on causes and, based on this, more targeted, cost-efficient measures are possible. In order to obtain the necessary knowledge about the heat spots, it is necessary to collect data.
DKSR can now support local authorities with this in a simple way: With the potential detector for sustainable municipalities there is a new tool with which cities and municipalities can without further technical infrastructure procurement Use real-time data to analyze heat measures can. By blending different data (e.g. temperature, buildings, vegetation), our team is developing a model for monitoring heat development within the respective municipality – without the need for a data platform.
Precise monitoring for targeted measures
Why “potential detector”? Quite simply because it is about monitoring that identifies potential for new, more efficient measures within the respective municipal context. The municipalities themselves choose which questions – corresponding to the current municipal challenges – the monitoring should answer for them, e.g.
- …where are there heat islands? And what causes them?
- …which urban indicators (structural, vegetation, topography) characterize places with an increased occurrence of heat islands?
- …what planning or construction measures can be used to avoid heat islands in the future – and how can citizens be best protected?
- …what can a regular reporting system for continuous reporting of inner-city heat zones look like?
Municipalities receive specific analyses for their city and can be sure that the measures to be introduced are worthwhile. After all, nothing is more annoying than rashly initiating costly measures that remain unsuccessful because the cause of the problem has been wrongly identified.
Visualization of heat data from vehicle fleets
The sustainable added value of heat island monitoring
DKSR prepares the data and the results of the analysis for local authorities in a comprehensive report: as a report, as an interactive dashboard and in a management presentation. We identify particularly hot and particularly cool locations and use the interplay of various data to establish correlations between temperature and factors such as traffic volume, tree populations, subsoil and building height. The monitoring thus provides a data-based foundation for short-term measures such as greening – this can include greening facades, roofs and buildings, increasing the tree population and inner-city vegetation. In the long term, the information obtained through monitoring can be incorporated into urban planning, e.g. for the planning of fresh air corridors.
The advantage: to identify heat islands, it is not absolutely necessary to constantly measure and evaluate urban temperatures. Simple reporting is also sufficient to take measures over a longer period of time: by recording the hot summer months once, valid long-term statements can be made.
Get into action quickly without infrastructure investment
The big advantage of the potential detector: no investment in your own data platform is necessary. Heat monitoring and reporting is handled entirely by DKSR; we take care of data acquisition, processing, evaluation and visualization. We bring in a lot of data via partners, such as vehicle fleet data from our partner Mercedes Benz AG, data from sharing mobility (e.g. e-scooters) and movement data. Local sensor data from the areas of weather, buildings, water and the environment can also be fed in. The municipality only needs to provide some local data, such as base maps, vegetation data and traffic data.
Interested municipalities can get started right away and take action against the summer heat. At the beginning of our collaboration with DKSR, we hold a two-hour kick-off meeting to discuss the specific circumstances of the municipality. This determines which type of data is particularly relevant. In a subsequent workshop, we then work together to discuss specific questions, which are answered in the report and form the basis for future measures.
Find out more and secure a discount as one of the first three municipalities to tackle the summer heatwave together with DKSR!