The MApUCE project aims to integrate in urban policies and most relevant legal documents quantitative data from urban microclimate, climate and energy.

The primary objective of this project is to obtain climate and energy quantitative data from numerical simulations, focusing on urban microclimate and building energy consumption in the residential and service sectors, which represents in France 41% of the final energy consumption. Both aspects are coupled as building energy consumption is highly meteorologically dependent (e.g. domestic heating, air-conditioning) and heat waste impact the Urban Heat Island. We propose to develop, using national databases, a generic and automated method for generating Local Climate Zones (LCZ) for all cities in France, including the urban architectural, geographical and sociological parameters necessary for energy and microclimate simulations.

As will be presented, previous projects on adaptation of cities to climate change have shown that human behavior is a very potent level to address energy consumption reduction, as much as urban forms or architectural technologies. Therefore, in order to further refine the coupled urban climate and energy consumption calculations, we will develop within TEB (and its Building Energy Module) a model of energy consumer behavior.

The second objective of the project is to propose a methodology to integrate quantitative data in urban policies. Lawyers analyze the potential levers in legal and planning documents. A few �best cases� are also studied, in order to evaluate their performances. Finally, based on urban planning agencies requirements, we will define vectors to include quantified energy-climate data to legal urban planning documents. These vectors have to be understandable by urban planners and contain the relevant information.

To meet these challenges, the project is organized around strongly interdisciplinary partners in the following fields: law, urban climate, building energetics, architecture, sociology, geography and meteorology, as well as the national federation of urban planning agencies.

In terms of results, the cross-analysis of input urban parameters and urban micro-climate-energy simulated data will be available on-line as standardized maps for each of the studied cities. The urban parameter production tool as well as the models will be available as open-source. LCZ and associated urban (and social!) indicators may be integrated within the WUDAPT database.

Climate-responsive green infrastructure in urban areas alleviates urban heat and enhances human health, well-being and thermal comfort. Green infrastructure encompasses the broad range of vegetated spaces or elements within cities that range from scale levels of urban greenways down to the level of gardens or green walls. There is a growing body of scientific micrometeorological knowledge about green infrastructure and its positive effects on urban climate and thermal comfort. However, only few studies translated that micrometeorological knowledge into utilizable design guidelines. Hence, micrometeorological knowledge about the climate-responsive effects of green infrastructure is hardly taken into account in the design of outdoor urban spaces. This leads to sub-optimal designs of the urban environment regarding its potential to contribute to human health, well-being and thermal comfort.

A major reason for this �utility gap� is the rigidity of the scientific microclimatological knowledge when it has to be translated into design guidelines. The rigidity cannot easily be compromised with important issues of urban and landscape design, such as various functions in the city and their requirements and many other issues. Therefore, we investigated how design guidelines based on rigid micrometeorological results could be improved in terms of utility. To do so the design guidelines were implemented in design processes and thus subjected to other functional issues occurring in urban and landscape design.

Our research questions concerned various aspects describing the utility of empirically based design guidelines. These aspects include comprehensibility, applicability and feasibility. Comprehensibility is related to clarity and intelligibility of the design guidelines; are designers with their specialised knowledge able to understand meaning and content of the guidelines in order to apply them? Applicability describes in how far designers with their specialised knowledge are able to easily, flexibly implement the design guidelines in specific site situations? Feasibility is related to workability of the design guidelines; are the site specific conditions suitable for the implementation of the design guideline?

We used a �Research through Designing� method that actively employs designing within the research process. Within this study we provided members of the professional community (landscape architects, urban designers and landscape architecture students) with the design guidelines that were derived from earlier micrometeorological research of green infrastructure in moderate climates. We then asked participants to actively apply these guidelines in two separate design processes; one for professionals, the other for students.

The research design comprised observations of the design processes, plan analyses of the design results and interviews with participants about their experiences during the design process. In all observations, plan analyses and interviews the focus was on the aspects of comprehensibility, applicability and feasibility of the design guidelines. The studies took place in a design studio of landscape architecture students at Wageningen University, the Netherlands (Atelier 2014) and a workshop for professional landscape architects and urban planners/ designers organized by the Aorta Centre of Architecture in Utrecht, the Netherlands (Aorta workshop 2014). We compared the outcomes of the plan analyses, observations and interviews.

Our results enabled us to refine the original �rigid� design guidelines derived from empirical micrometeorological research. The refined design guidelines offer utilizable knowledge for climate-responsive designs of green infrastructure in moderate climates. This study, furthermore, shows the value of combining scientific evidence and practical knowledge of landscape architects urban designers to develop more utilizable design guidelines. Eventually, the application of design guidelines for climate-responsive green infrastructure in future urban design projects will result in more healthy and thermally comfortable outdoor urban spaces.

Climate change, causing temperatures and sea levels to rise and an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heat waves, droughts, heavy rainfall and storm events, presents risks to human and natural systems. Whilst mitigation actions have been acknowledged as essential for some time, adaptation has more recently emerged as a central area in climate change research, in country-level planning, and in the implementation of climate change strategies. In particular, increasing concern is being raised about the impacts of climate change on urban environments, their growing populations and valuable assets, and the urgent need to invest in adaptation strategies to ensure that urban areas are resilient to climate change.

Urban green spaces provide important ecosystem services, including climate services such as cooling and flood protection, which can increase the resilience of cities through aiding adaptation to climatic hazards. However, the high density of urban centres and restricted opportunities for new development are particular barriers affecting the local capacity to adapt cities to climate change, such as by enhancing the existing green space.

Many urban areas, particularly in post-industrial cities, however, have previously developed land scattered across a city suffering dereliction or abandonment due to the ownership status, contamination, and other reasons. Recent research has found that such brownfield or vacant land is of great biodiversity value and provides many other ecosystem services, such as important regulating and cultural services, and could be extremely important in aiding adaptation of urban areas to climate change. Thus, restoring brownfield land to greenspace should be promoted by planning policy. However, with competing development priorities, economic pressure in urban areas, and the traditional view that brownfields are degraded and unsightly environments, means that rates of brownfield development are high and key sites of importance for adapting urban areas to climate change may soon be lost.

This research frames and assesses the current services provided by brownfields and their benefits and contribution to adapting the city to climate change, and assesses their potential additional services if greened. Using Manchester, UK, as a case study, the research analyses the ecosystem services provided by individual brownfield sites with a focus upon those services that aid building resilience to climate change, using a range of indicators and geospatial datasets. Manchester�s industrial legacy has left behind large numbers of derelict sites following the economic transformation to a predominantly service-based economy in the late twentieth century. There are now over 2,000 brownfield sites, occupying 42 square kilometres. The assessment aids strategic decision-making and assists planners in prioritising brownfield land most valuable in building climate change resilience in key areas across the city. The devised assessment framework is widely transferable to other cities experiencing similar concerns with previously developed or vacant land and requiring adaptation to climatic events such as heat waves, fluvial and pluvial flooding.

Global warming leads to increase the extreme climatic events such as heat waves and urban areas, that concentrate population and economical activity, are particularly vulnerable to it. Indeed, the urban heat island amplifies the effect of heat waves. It can provoke dramatic consequences such as health issues for the inhabitants when the temperatures are high during summer time. Moreover, it can also affect water and energy supply causing energy breaks linked to high demand for cooling. In this context, it is a necessity to find a way for cities to adapt to the future climatic conditions. Using eco-labelling which prove environmental performance in urban design can be a solution. But one wonders if these preoccupations are discussed and taken into account in French current urban eco labels. This paper first proposes to question the way of how urban climate (and more broadly environmental quality) is considered in French eco labels of urban design. These labels such as � Ecoquartier � or � HQE am�nagement � are known to require more than usual urban legislation. They are the most popular ways to think an urban design respecting the new paradigm of environmental quality. That�s why this study aims to analyse how urban climate issues are treated in these labels, whether it be adaptation or mitigation questions. It aims to evaluate the importance accorded to these issues compared to the others themes that refer to environmental quality. In order to do this, several eco labels are selected and analysed in relation to environmental and climatic questions.

In a second time, we want to define the link between theory and practice. This analytic approach will be completed by the review of some specific cases of urban projects using these labels in order to analyse how climatic questions are taken into account through real cases.

By these analyses, we can develop the point that eco labels don�t give the same importance to adaptation and mitigation questions. We can also presume that the transition from theory to practice can have consequences such as minimising the scope of some preoccupations.

This ICUC Abstract is a draft excerpt based on the work in progress of the Second Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3-2) document. The final and complete document will be published in 2015 by Cambridge University Press, and launched by the end of 2015 at a side session at the 21st UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris. This abstract draws from the chapter on Urban Planning and Design, which attempts to bring together literature and strategies on how urban decision-making can enhance or moderate urban climate effects.

The chapter�s research findings endorse the concept of adaptive mitigation: climate management activities designed to reduce the global greenhouse gas effect, while increasing climate resilience to urban heat and flooding (Stone, 2012). These activities are measured in terms of function and form, including:

* Urban functions: Reducing waste heat and energy emissions from human activities and infrastructure networks, including buildings, transportation, and industry

* Morphology: Configuring climate-responsive three-dimensional urban form comprising orientation, natural ventilation, and solar impacts

* Construction materials and surface coating: Optimally modifying the built environment�s surface reflectivity and associated thermophysical properties

* Surface cover: Strategically enhancing the built environment�s vegetative coverage

The chapter urges urban decision-makers to promote sustainable-resilient cities that:

* Prioritize investments in mitigation strategies that yield concurrent adaptive benefits, over mitigation strategies that do not

* Ensure long-range strategies across scales, jurisdictions and electoral time-frames

* Embed Climate-Responsive Design into Planning and Design Process

* Consider local conditions to generate climate-responsive strategies

* Deliver quality of life for urban citizens as the key performance outcome across all sectors

* Invest in social cohesion as key to resilience, whose success hinges on people-centred urban spaces

Jeffrey Raven, Brian Stone, Gerald Mills, Lutz Katzschner, Pascaline Gaborit, Mattia Leone, Matei Georgescu, Maryam Hariri, Joel Towers, James Lee, Jeffrey LeJava, Ayyoob Sharifi, Cristina Visconti, Andrew Rudd