ClimateCafé
Quick guide
A global community powered by individual, corporate, and academic climate change influencers with focusses on training programs. This movement raises awareness and mentors capacity building on Climate Adaptation with open source tools such as www.climatescan.org and City Climatescan Café events around the world.
The objective of ClimateCafé is to approach the challenge from different fields of science and practice to answer the main research question “Is capacity building achieved by interdisciplinary field experience related to climate change adaptation?” No discipline can give the full solution on its own. This work aims to demonstrate the necessity of multidisciplinary collaboration for assessing and implementing sustainable climate adaptation solutions, as well as capacity building among young professionals. To achieve the aims of ClimateCafés, both the social and natural science approaches to a common challenge are considered. The content of each ClimateCafé is not fixed, which allows each event to adapt to any setting depending upon the location and stakeholders with local challenges or threats in terms of climate adaptation.
Result
There are over 30 global climatecafes held. For example, ClimateCafé Malmö: Boogaard, F.C.; Venvik, G.; Pedroso de Lima, R.L.; Cassanti, A.C.; Roest, A.H.; Zuurman, A. ClimateCafé: An Interdisciplinary Educational Tool for Sustainable Climate Adaptation and Lessons Learned. Sustainability 2020, 12, 3694 doi:10.3390/su12093694.
ClimateCafé is still being developed, but the outcome of the ClimateCafé in Malmö gives a clear direction for further development of this concept for capacity building, knowledge exchange, and bridging the gap between disciplines within climate change adaptation. The results of the different workshops show that valuable multidisciplinary data can be gathered in a short period of time, which can be used by local stakeholders to improve, maintain, or evaluate the effectiveness of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in their local context.
ClimateCafés, like the Malmö event, can aid young professionals with different backgrounds, such as urban planners, water management, and landscape architects, designers, and many more in managing sustainable climate change adaptation for resilient cities. In a ClimateCafé this is demonstrated through
- a multidisciplinary approach of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), and
- demonstrating tools and methods to evaluate the quality and sustainability of NBS.
The data collected in Augustenborg shows that the green infrastructure is functioning particularly well, with an infiltration capacity in the order of 0.15–0.23 m/d and very low values of potential toxic element pollutants after 20 years in operation. In contrast, the study has shown that the blue infrastructure in Augustenborg requires further research and monitoring, as in some ponds the algae (blue-green algae) and dissolved oxygen concentrations revealed undesired values, which could have negative implications for inhabitants and animals when they come in contact with the water. Mapping with sensors on bikes showed that the air-temperature varies through the city. Green-blue infrastructure in parks has a cooling effect, and the temperatures are lower closer to the ocean. This may be a useful tool for planning where Nature-Based solutions will be most effective in reducing heat stress in urban areas. The results of this study regarding quick scan mapping of pollutants and hydraulic test of Nature-Based Solutions could help (storm) water managers with planning, modelling, testing, and scheduling of maintenance requirements for swales and raingardens with more confidence so that they will continue to perform satisfactorily over their intended design lifespan.
In addition to enhancing knowledge on climate change adaptation and Nature-Based Solutions among the participants, ClimateCafés aim to increase awareness and stimulate capacity building. The storytelling methodology used in Malmö has shown that the participants benefit from the ClimateCafé, which can be categorized in three topics:
- getting knowledge on the theme by discussions and demonstration of techniques,
- networking,
- getting inspiration from examples for new studies and to apply climate adaptation in their home towns.
In this event the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were included. The results from the storytelling show that the UN SDGs were not emphasized enough during the workshops and the participants did not fully understand the concept or benefit of incorporating the goals. This is a lesson learned, which will be improved in future ClimateCafés.