{"id":14268,"date":"2020-11-09T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/?p=14268"},"modified":"2022-12-05T18:35:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T16:35:36","slug":"we-must-adapt-to-the-changing-climate-strategic-planning-provides-a-basis-for-safe-and-sustainable-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/ajankohtaista\/news\/we-must-adapt-to-the-changing-climate-strategic-planning-provides-a-basis-for-safe-and-sustainable-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"We must adapt to the changing climate \u2013 strategic planning provides a basis for safe and sustainable cities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Mikko<\/h2>\n

We must adapt to the changing climate \u2013 strategic planning provides a basis for safe and sustainable cities<\/h1>\n

Sweco\u2019s Urban Insight report shows that only 26\u202fper\u202fcent of Europe\u2019s cities have drawn up an adaptation plan for climate change. Project Manager Mikko Raninen from Sweco\u2019s urban planning department reflects on how cities could develop their resilience. Strategic urban planning could help us adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sweco\u2019s recent\u00a0<\/span>Urban Insight report<\/span><\/a>\u00a0states that only about one in four European cities has drawn up a plan for adapting to climate change. Existing plans can also be insufficient in scope and difficult to implement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>By 2050, there will be an estimated 9.7 billion people in the world. Of them, 70\u202fper\u202fcent will live in cities. In the future, cities must be safe and comfortable places to live for an increasing number of people.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWe need adaptation strategies in order to anticipate the adverse effects of climate change and prevent and minimise the negative impacts. In urban planning, we must focus on both climate change prevention and adaptation,\u201d says Sweco\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Mikko Raninen<\/span><\/strong>, project manager in urban planning.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Adaptation is mainly carried out locally, since cities have the authority for the majority of adaptation methods. Urban planning creates long-term solutions, which is why the slow effects of climate change must be taken into account.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cExcellent innovations and solutions are being discovered all the time. Now we must ensure that they are also implemented,\u201d Raninen states.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Climate change will increase extreme weather phenomena, but the slow changes must also be identified<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rivers bursting their banks, torrential rains, record heatwaves… Extreme weather phenomena are already tormenting Europe in many ways. However, slow climate change is not simply a question of extreme phenomena. For example, the utility company Thames Water has evaluated that the future damage caused by droughts could cost London up to 365\u202fmillion\u202feuros a day if the infrastructure is not adapted to climate change.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Finland, the impacts of climate change are generally happening slowly and are not yet as dramatic as in Central and Southern Europe, for example,\u201d Raninen explains. \u201cBut even the gradually changing climate has complex and cumulative effects, both on natural ecosystems and urban infrastructures and economies.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Finland, gradual change can mean shorter winters, warmer summers and longer heatwaves. Raninen feels that this may change our conventional design methods.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur construction has focused on heating and combatting the everyday \u2018nuisances\u2019 of winter, such as coldness and snow loads. With warmer winters and hotter summers, the need for cooling in cities will increase, whereas heating will become less important. On one hand, we may experience more rain. And on the other hand, winters may also see greater snow loads than in the previous decades. We must reserve space on the streets for temporary snow storage, but we also need to learn how to make use of this space throughout the year.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The solution lies in comprehensive understanding and cooperation<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the impacts of climate change become more complex, more versatile skillset is required to understand the phenomena and find solutions to the issues. According to Raninen, we must in particular try to avoid the silo effect.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA comprehensive overview of climate change and adaptation measures requires a wide understanding and meeting of different interest groups,\u201d Raninen explains.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Solutions cannot be created within just one field of design. What is needed is collective thinking and expertise from several fields. The key thing is to combine different skills, so that instead of sub-optimisation, we create solutions that best serve the whole.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the number of green roofs and solar panels in a city is to be increased, their locations must be determined based on data. If each operator only optimises their own plot, we may be unable to deliver the best comprehensive solutions and achieve the results required for adaptation objectives. As designers of built environment, we have the opportunity to support cities in finding holistic solutions,\u201d Raninen explains.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Data harnessed as a tool for design and implementation<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Raninen points to the Carbon Neutral Helsinki 2035 Action Plan as an example of a strategy that contains objectives as well as meters and measures. This is how it can genuinely guide both planning and implementation. For example, the action plan states that the proportion of heating provided by geothermal sources must be increased from the current one percent to 15\u202fper\u202fcent by 2035.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen such an objective is recorded in the strategy, it forces the city to come up with implementation methods and to monitor and continuously measure how the objective is being met,\u201d Raninen says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShared understanding of the impacts of climate change and a strategy that guides all design and construction provide are a good basis for a sustainable city,\u201d Raninen summarises.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sweco\u2019s Urban Insight report shows that only 26\u202fper\u202fcent of Europe\u2019s cities have drawn up an adaptation plan for climate change. Project Manager Mikko Raninen from Sweco\u2019s urban planning department reflects on how cities could develop their resilience. Strategic urban planning could help us adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":14728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Sweco\u2019s Urban Insight report shows that only 26\u202fper\u202fcent of Europe\u2019s cities have drawn up an adaptation plan for climate change. Project Manager Mikko Raninen from Sweco\u2019s urban planning department reflects on how cities could develop their resilience. Strategic urban planning could help us adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14268"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38533,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14268\/revisions\/38533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

We can increase our understanding of the changing climate, for example,\u00a0<\/span>by modelling its effects on cities<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n