Climate adaptation in municipalities
Climate adaptation concepts and heat action plans as part of municipal public services
Climate change is advancing and climatic changes will continue to intensify: above all, a sharp rise in temperature, combined with extreme heat events, will become more frequent.
For local authorities, it is therefore a key public service task to embed climate adaptation and heat protection in urban processes and to implement measures. This is because a lack of or insufficient adaptation increases the vulnerability of local authorities and causes high follow-up costs in the event of damage.
Climate adaptation concepts and heat action plans
These are key tools for identifying risks, taking targeted countermeasures and reducing damage. Based on its many years of experience and expertise in the field of climate adaptation, bifa offers the development and implementation of locally appropriate, application-oriented and highly effective adaptation concepts and heat action plans. Unique selling points include a participatory approach with the continuous and consistent involvement of local stakeholders, as well as content support and processing by interdisciplinary project teams consisting of social scientists, engineers and economists. In doing so, bifa pursues a consulting concept that does not seek to impose ready-made solutions and concepts ‘from outside.’ Rather, local decision-makers, experts and stakeholders are involved and, with the help of technical input, enabled to jointly identify and implement consensus-based and locally appropriate concepts and measures. This stakeholder-oriented, holistic and systemic approach can also yield unexpected insights, innovative strategies with a high degree of practical relevance, and a strong commitment on the part of those involved to the concept and implementation of the adaptation measures developed. Instead of transferring standard solutions, measures that are acceptable to all and tailored to the specific situation are developed jointly.
Current projects
Since the summer, bifa has been developing a heat action plan for the city of Aschaffenburg. The aim is to link proven health care strategies with municipal structures, protect particularly vulnerable groups and prepare the city for heat waves. Here, too, the focus is on a participatory approach in order to create an effective, sustainable and locally appropriate action plan.
Developing a climate adaptation concept for the city of Merzig has been bifa’s focus since November 2025. This involves systematically pooling existing knowledge, analysing regional challenges and climate risks, and working with local stakeholders to develop sustainable measures to prepare Merzig as best as possible for extreme events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and drought.
