Mapping climate change - barriers and opportunities for action

Urban renewal and climate change adaptation
In some situations, climate change adaptation affects more than just the individual building. In such
situations concerted efforts may be difficult to coordinate, e.g. in housing areas with many different
owners and/or many smaller properties/detached houses. Here, by application of the Urban Renewal
Act, the municipality can play the role of initiator and coordinator:
Urban renewal of Kulturringen, an urban area in Høje-Taastrup Municipality near Copenhagen, has
received funding under the Urban Renewal Act. The project is a public-private partnership managed by
the municipality and with participation from property owners, enterprises, cultural institutions, schools
and housing associations in the area. The overall project includes a sub-project which stems from a
need for climate change adaptation. In order to prevent future flooding, the area's retention basin had to
be extended. The project chose to establish a "blue park"; a recreational area which also serves as a
connection between two parts of the city.
The legislative framework for the social housing sector includes extensive requirements for
systematic property management of social housing, including requirements for long-term
operational and maintenance planning. Most recently, requirements have been introduced for the
digitisation of property management and maintenance based on a newly developed administrative
classification system. The municipalities and the social housing organisations are responsible for
realising at local level the requirements that have been stipulated at central level. If they deem it
relevant, the municipalities and the social housing organisations could include climate change
adaptation as an integral part of their management dialogue.
The Danish Building Defects Fund for social housing, which has performed inspections of
buildings classified as social housing since 1986, has collected considerable knowledge about the
problems relating to building design and building materials. The Fund makes its experience
available to others, including experience related to climate change vulnerability and adaptation;
experience which could be relevant for players in other housing sectors. The area covered by the
Danish Building Defects Fund was expanded in 2011 to include large renovation projects in the
existing social housing stock.
Digital records on buildings, topography and climate are plentiful. The Ministry of Housing, Urban
and Rural Affairs has launched work to link climate data with data on public rental properties in
registers such as the Danish Building and Housing Register and the Ministry's own social and
public housing registers. Topographic data from the Danish Elevation Model are linked to
information in the Danish Building and Housing Register about the location of buildings.
Furthermore, the proportion of social housing with basements in the individual municipalities has
been mapped. The aim is to enable the use of climate data digitally in connection with management
and renovation of properties and planning new building etc. The greater focus on digitisation of
property management, see the above, will very likely be able to support this.
In recent years the Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs has developed economic models
for use when contemplating renovation projects with long life spans, e.g. energy savings or climate
change adaptation in social housing, including building new low-energy housing. These models can
relatively easily be adapted for use when investing in existing buildings, also outside the social
housing sector.
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