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As cities are sensitive to climate change, they must be prepared for its consequences. While high-performance urban climate models are the basis for prospective planning decisions, as of today, practice-oriented models are rare. Within the framework of the Urban Climate Under ChangeUC2 research programme, the new urban climate model PALM‑4U will be developed to simulate climate and air-pollution problems in urban areas. The joint projects KliMoPrax and UseUClim deal with both the model\'s practicability and usability, and, therefore, are to be conducted together with partners from German municipalities and industry, with user requirements identified and summarised for implementation into the new model. Furthermore, case studies on current and future municipal issues will be performed using the PALM‑4U model. At the conclusion of the project, the new model\'s practicability and usability are evaluated, with the results to be summarised in an evaluation report including recommendations on further model development for both current and future everyday municipal planning.

Hitzewellen in Deutschland haben sich seit dem Jahr 2000 gehäuft und verstärkt. Diese gesteigerte Erwärmung erfasst auch die Innenräume. Gleichzeitig haben die Hitzeepisoden erstmalig und ununterbrochen über mehr als drei Wochen angedauert. Damit einher geht ein nichtlinearer Anstieg der Häufigkeit extremer Wohnraumtemperaturen oberhalb von 29 bis 30 °C. Diese klimatische Tendenz ist geeignet, notwendige sommerliche Wohnraumkühlung zum drängenden Leitthema der Wohnungswirtschaft zu machen. Flächendeckende bauliche und anlagentechnische Umbauten bestehender Wohnlandschaften sowie Modifikationen der aktuellen Baurichtlinien scheinen dringend geboten.

A strong heat load in buildings and cities during the summer is not a new phenomenon. However, prolonged heat waves and increasing urbanization are intensifying the heat island effect in our cities; hence, the heat exposure in residential buildings. The thermophysiological load in the interior and exterior environments can be reduced in the medium and long term, through urban planning and building physics measures. In the short term, an increasingly vulnerable population must be effectively informed of an impending heat wave. Building simulation models can be favorably used to evaluate indoor heat stress. This study presents a generic simulation model, developed from monitoring data in urban multi-unit residential buildings during a summer period and using statistical methods. The model determines both the average room temperature and its deviations and, thus, consists of three sub-models: cool, average, and warm building types. The simulation model is based on the same mathematical algorithm, whereas each building type is described by a specific data set, concerning its building physical parameters and user behavior, respectively. The generic building model may be used in urban climate analyses with many individual buildings distributed across the city or in heat–health warning systems, with different building and user types distributed across a region. An urban climate analysis (with weather data from a database) may evaluate local differences in urban and indoor climate, whereas heat–health warning systems (driven by a weather forecast) obtain additional information on indoor heat stress and its expected deviations.

Large cities and urban regions are confronted with rising pressure by environmental pollution, impacts of climate change, as well as natural and health hazards. They are characterised by heterogeneous mosaics of urban structures, causing modifications of atmospheric processes on different temporal and spatial scales. Planning authorities need reliable, locally relevant information on urban atmospheric processes, providing fine spatial resolutions in city quarters or street canyons, as well as projections of future climates, specifically downscaled to individual cities. Therefore, building-resolving urban climate models for entire city regions are required as a tool for urban development and planning, air quality control, as well as for design of actions for climate change mitigation and adaptation. To date, building-resolving atmospheric models covering entire large cities are mostly missing. The German research programme ""Urban Climate Under Change"" ([UC]2) aims at developing a new urban climate model, acquiring three-dimensional observational data for model testing and validation, and testing its practicability and usability in collaboration with relevant stakeholders to provide a scientifically sound and practicable instrument to address the above mentioned challenges. This article provides an outline of the collaborative activities of the [UC]2 research programme.

The topics of this chapter are weather sensitivity related to electricity supply and data services of the National Meteorological Service of Germany (DWD). First, the weather sensitivities of electricity generation (thermal power plants, run-of-river power plants and wind energy plants) are shown. Then, atmospheric influences on overhead lines and underground cables, as well as on transformer and switching stations are examined. Second, the way in which the DWD supports electric companies by offering tailored data is illustrated. One conclusion of the chapter is that the inclusion of environmental parameters (like air and water temperatures, wind speeds, discharge amounts) is of great importance for a number of business actions in electricity companies. In order to ensure efficient research with useful results for electricity companies, the great amount of relevant information (from national meteorological services, planning offices, catastrophe service and as much as possible from companies) needs to be collected and compiled.