Findings of Current Projects
This website summarizes the preliminary findings of two pilot studies of the Climate Action Science project. We constantly update this page and add additional information. In case you would like to learn more about the project, feel free to contact Max Jungmann (maximilian.jungmann@ipw.uni-heidelberg.de).
Climate Action Science - first steps
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The project provides high-resolution emission inventories for methane and carbon dioxide and atmospheric measurements at the municipal level as a tool for climate-active institutions and individuals (Theme 1). But does better information also lead to more climate action? - The project examines the performance of different inventory and verification options to effectively support citizen-driven climate action (Theme 2).
In order to get some first insights into the feasibility of the project, the Ministry of Science, Research and Art Baden-Württemberg has funded two initial research projects of Climate Action Science. The first one constitutes a pilot study to test some essential hypotheses of CAS in Heidelberg and the second one serves to foster international cooperation with our partners in California. Detailed information follows below.
Pilot Study
The interdisciplinary pilot study investigates the concept of high-resolution mapping and visualization of greenhouse gas information and its utilization by citizens and other climate actors. To this end, information on greenhouse gas emissions will be collected using the case study of the Heidelberg area with high spatial and temporal resolution and visualized in a way that supports efficient climate action. The research objective is the collection, synopsis and quality of the heterogeneous data sets for the emissions inventory and the preparation of information and evaluation of different display options tailored to the needs of different users.
The aim is to use the findings of the pilot study as a stimulus and preparatory work for further projects on the topic of "Climate action well-founded design" beyond the case study projected here. Research needs for further studies will be identified and innovative research approaches evaluated.
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The Team
Geography:
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Gerhard, Philipp Schulz (Human geography)
Dr. Nicole Aeschbach, Dr. Kathrin Foshag, Julius Hoderlein (TdLab)
Dr. Sven Lautenbach, Katharina Przybill (Geoinformatics)
Psychology:
Dr. Florian Kutzner, Dennis Hebbelmann
International Cooperation
International cooperation at the sub-national level to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is the focus of the Under2Coalition founded by California and Baden-Württemberg. In order to enable effective climate action, politics, business, and society need verified, detailed and case-specific information on the causes, intensity and spatial distribution of greenhouse gas emissions as well as effective communication channels. Therefore, we seek to strengthen the research cooperation between California and Baden-Württemberg through four initial measures, which will in the following be described in detail.
Four initial measures
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1. To foster cooperation between CAS researchers in Baden-Württemberg and California, we are planning a series of online workshops that seek to enable the interdisciplinary academic exchange among all involved stakeholders and eventually lead to the development of additional joint research projects. The first workshop will be dedicated to the exchange of information on the current state of research in each country and the comparison of the focal points under Identification of research gaps. In the second workshop, concrete research designs and further cooperation possibilities will be developed and the planning, status and progress of measures 2-4 will be reported.
2. Within the project we want to investigate the availability and quality of geoinformation from monitoring networks, official data and especially from the field of Citizen Science. Spatially and temporally dense and reliable geoinformation is necessary to enable the modeling of greenhouse gas emissions on a local scale. The analyses are to be carried out comparatively for California and Baden-Württemberg in order to be able to plan future activities of data collection and processing tailored to the respective needs. Tools for quality assessment and improvement of geodata will be tailored and further developed on the basis of case studies.
3. The state of California has a number of measures in place to track local climate impacts (California Energy Commission, Office of Planning and Research), immissions (AirNow), and local emissions (California Air Resources Board, SUMMATION - LBL). At the same time, California is gaining initial experience through research projects with the active involvement of citizens in recording ambient pollution levels (CitiSense - UCSD, Beacon - UCB) or in analyzing greenhouse gas flows (Flux Capacity - UCB and UC Merced). Accordingly, the aim of this measure is to a) create a comprehensive overview of the progress, concrete implementation and further planning of the research activities of the Californian partners, b) to examine the expansion and further development of the Californian partners in the direction of climate action, c), initiate corresponding concrete cooperation projects, and b) start projects that adapt the research approaches from California to the situation in Baden-Württemberg, validate research results from California in BW and develop strategies complementary to California.
4. Together with partners from California, a measurement campaign will be conducted to test novel methods for mapping greenhouse gas emissions. To this end, measuring instruments from Heidelberg will be operated together with Californian instruments for a period of around eight weeks. The aim is to test the accuracy and reliability of the methods and to estimate local greenhouse gas emissions through simultaneous operation. Heidelberg's interests focus on the validation and use of a method based on the measurement of reflected solar radiation. This process was first realized at the California Institute of Technology/Jet Propulsion Laboratory using stationary instrumentation and was recently translated into a portable system by the Heidelberg working group that could enable worldwide use of the process.
The Team
CAS Project Coordination:
Dr. Maximilian Jungmann
Johanna Becker
Environmental Physics:
Prof. Dr. André Butz
Dr. Sanam Vardag
Benedikt Hemmer
Environmental Economics:
Prof. Timo Goeschl, Ph.D.
Alexander Dangel
Geography:
Prof. Dr. Alexander Zipf (Geoinformatics)
Dr. Michael Schultz, Dr. Tessio Novack, Johannes Fürle (GIScience)