The Haarmann Foundation - Environment and Nature and the Osnabrück Club Foundation present the results of the German Environmental Aid's heat check for Osnabrück. They also present the project "1000 new trees for Osnabrück". Barbara Metz, Managing Director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe, will personally present her assessment of the Hasestadt.
About the method of the heat check:
The basis for the assessment of surface sealing is the average German share of sealing in the settlement and traffic area of 45 percent. Settlement and traffic areas include residential buildings, roads, parks and cemeteries. A red card is awarded to those who have a significantly above-average proportion of sealed surfaces (more than 50 percent). A yellow card is awarded to those with 45 to 50 percent sealed surfaces and a green card to those with 45 percent below the German average.
The green volume considers green spaces with a climate-regulating effect and is given in cubic meters per square meter. An average-tall deciduous tree has a green volume of around 3,400 cubic meters.
For the overall assessment, surface sealing and green volume were considered in combination, with surface sealing being weighted more heavily.
The majority of cities in Germany do not adequately protect people from the extremely high temperatures resulting from the climate crisis: they are both heavily sealed and offer too little cooling green space. This is the result of the first heat check carried out by Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) among the 190 German cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The analysis looks at land sealing and green spaces in the cities, based on new data from Potsdamer Luftbild Umwelt Planung GmbH on behalf of DUH. A total of 24 cities receive a red card, 82 a yellow card and 84 a green card.
The cities of Ludwigshafen, Heilbronn, Regensburg, Worms, Mainz, Ludwigsburg and Ingolstadt score particularly poorly - they are particularly heavily sealed and have very little so-called green volume. Detmold, Ratingen, Potsdam and Jena perform best among the cities with a green map, i.e. comparatively little sealing and a high green volume. Cities such as Sindelfingen or Kaiserslautern are extremely heavily sealed, but have a lot of green space. Such cities receive a yellow card. Cities such as Pulheim and Wilhelmshaven, which have a comparatively low level of sealing but at the same time very little green space, also receive a yellow card.
In addition Barbara Metz, Federal Managing Director of DUH: "We are calling on the Federal Government to set a legally binding target to stop land sealing in Germany by 2035 at the latest. In times of climate crisis, our cities need unsealed soils for water infiltration and green spaces for cooling. But not all green is the same. Turf cannot keep up with the old tree population, which is why it is not only crucial that sealing is stopped and reduced where possible, but also that trees, bushes and meadows can be found in our cities alongside lawns. The continuing trend towards more concrete and less greenery is alarming. Instead of becoming places worth living in for recreation, our cities are turning into heat hells. The federal government must now take effective measures, such as prescribing nationwide standards for the greening of school playgrounds. We are calling for mandatory green areas at municipal level and conversion instead of new construction."
Currently, over 50 hectares of land are used for settlements and traffic in Germany every day, which is equivalent to the area of the city of Hanover every year. In times of climate crisis, this poses an enormous health risk. The loss of large trees has particularly serious consequences. They provide a high cooling effect in the city. Green spaces without trees have a cooling effect that is around two to four times less than areas with trees.<br
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