Urban Governance Toolbox for a Climate-Friendly Smart City

While many European cities have integrated climate protection into plans and processes and are aware of the dramatic effects of the climate change for the urban space, the integration of climate adaptation remains limited. However, even if the defined climate goals are reached, cities will have to adapt their structures and processes to deal with increased risks. That is why climate protection must be supplemented by climate adaptation measures in order to preserve attractive, liveable and safe living space. The paper builds on activities within the project SMARTilience funded by the federal Ministry of Education and Research. The Institute of Human Factors and Technology Management (IAT) of the University of Stuttgart, the HafenCity University Hamburg, Drees&Sommer, the Malik Management GmbH and the German cities Mannheim and Halle (Saale) are developing an integrated, socio-technical control model, the so-called urban governance toolbox, to support decision-makers and other actors in municipalities to promote effective climate action. This toolbox should include smart tools which helps to increase the resilience of a city and integrates climate change and climate adaptation. This paper discusses the justification of its development, possible content and the concept behind the urban governance toolbox. Furthermore, the paper will present two concrete use cases (Mannheim and Halle) with their urgent pressure to act on climate adaptation and how those two urban laboratories with real experiments will contribute to the development of the toolbox. Furthermore, the paper explains the peer-to-peer learning which is strongly emphasized in the project as one part of the urban toolbox.