258
City Administration. The summary points out the project’s added value for the city,
indicating that the journey Vienna has taken to protect the climate while at the same
time adapting to the consequences of climate change is bound for success.
9.1 Introduction
The pilot action “Urban Heat Islands – Strategy Plan Vienna” (UHI-STRAT Vienna)
is meant to trigger discussion processes, to make the problems entailed in UHI visible for political decision-makers and the city administration, as well as to offer
assistance and clearly defi ned solutions. The results of the pilot action UHI-STRAT
Vienna are helping to put the issue of Urban Heat Islands in the focus of future
urban development. Increasing heat stress and a rising temperatures during the summer months as predicted for the City of Vienna can be mitigated by putting into
place the strategic and technical measures proposed. Protecting and expanding the
city’s green infrastructure, for example, can effectively reduce the consequences of
UHI while at the same time improving people’s quality of life and boosting urban
biodiversity. The pilot action UHI-STRAT Vienna helps the participating administrative agencies identify the measures relevant for their work, the measures they can
implement in their own areas of competence, the steering tools and levels at their
disposal, and the potential of the different measures. The pilot action UHI-STRAT
Vienna was developed in close coordination with representatives from the Vienna
City Administration and outside experts on the basis of autonomous yet interlinked
discourses (Hubo and Krott 2012 ).
9.2 A Consistent Strategy for UHI in Urban Planning
The objective of the UHI-STRAT Vienna is to integrate consistent consideration of
urban climate aspects at different levels of planning. There is a wide range of tools
where the (urban) climate already features strongly, along with a number of strategies and rules on how to tackle the phenomenon of Urban Heat Islands. The subject
matter includes contracts under international law, such as the UN Climate Change
Convention, Austrian wide approaches, such as the Austrian Strategy on Adaptation
to Climate Change, regional approaches, such as the Climate Protection Programme
of the City of Vienna, as well as federal and provincial laws, guidelines, planning
tools and planning assistance. Mitigating the effects of UHI combined with forwardlooking urban planning for the prevention of Urban Heat Islands has become a very
integrative task. Different fi elds of action, steering levels and planning processes are
either infl uenced by the implementation of measures or infl uence the latter in turn.
It is important in the context to bear in mind the hierarchy of the planning tools and
the chronological order the different tools are used in the course of planning.
D. Damyanovic et al.
City Administration. The summary points out the project’s added value for the city,
indicating that the journey Vienna has taken to protect the climate while at the same
time adapting to the consequences of climate change is bound for success.
9.1 Introduction
The pilot action “Urban Heat Islands – Strategy Plan Vienna” (UHI-STRAT Vienna)
is meant to trigger discussion processes, to make the problems entailed in UHI visible for political decision-makers and the city administration, as well as to offer
assistance and clearly defi ned solutions. The results of the pilot action UHI-STRAT
Vienna are helping to put the issue of Urban Heat Islands in the focus of future
urban development. Increasing heat stress and a rising temperatures during the summer months as predicted for the City of Vienna can be mitigated by putting into
place the strategic and technical measures proposed. Protecting and expanding the
city’s green infrastructure, for example, can effectively reduce the consequences of
UHI while at the same time improving people’s quality of life and boosting urban
biodiversity. The pilot action UHI-STRAT Vienna helps the participating administrative agencies identify the measures relevant for their work, the measures they can
implement in their own areas of competence, the steering tools and levels at their
disposal, and the potential of the different measures. The pilot action UHI-STRAT
Vienna was developed in close coordination with representatives from the Vienna
City Administration and outside experts on the basis of autonomous yet interlinked
discourses (Hubo and Krott 2012 ).
9.2 A Consistent Strategy for UHI in Urban Planning
The objective of the UHI-STRAT Vienna is to integrate consistent consideration of
urban climate aspects at different levels of planning. There is a wide range of tools
where the (urban) climate already features strongly, along with a number of strategies and rules on how to tackle the phenomenon of Urban Heat Islands. The subject
matter includes contracts under international law, such as the UN Climate Change
Convention, Austrian wide approaches, such as the Austrian Strategy on Adaptation
to Climate Change, regional approaches, such as the Climate Protection Programme
of the City of Vienna, as well as federal and provincial laws, guidelines, planning
tools and planning assistance. Mitigating the effects of UHI combined with forwardlooking urban planning for the prevention of Urban Heat Islands has become a very
integrative task. Different fi elds of action, steering levels and planning processes are
either infl uenced by the implementation of measures or infl uence the latter in turn.
It is important in the context to bear in mind the hierarchy of the planning tools and
the chronological order the different tools are used in the course of planning.
D. Damyanovic et al.