Climate and the built environment have always existed in a close relationship to one another. The concept that planning and building influence the air quality and climate in a city was comprehensively represented for the first time in P. A. Kratzer’s book “Das Stadtklima” (the Urban Climate), published in 1937 by the monastery of Ettal. The climatic and air-quality conditions under which we live depend not only on natural circumstances but also very significantly on the distribution of land uses as well as the built structure and arrangement of developed areas and buildings. The principal decisions for these issues are made in the development of building and zoning plans, in which the traditional requirement for “exposure, air circulation, and sunlight” for the “creation and regaining of healthy living and working conditions” still holds fundamental importance today as a call for action.

Through criteria for emissions reductions, air chemistry, building physics, and energy saving as well as in relation to the protection of the earth’s atmosphere, the understanding of “air” and “climate” as planning factors has experienced a considerable advancement. This is also demonstrated by a look back to the first “Climate Booklet for Urban Development, Version 1”, published by the Interior Ministry of Baden-Württemberg. This booklet achieved a high degree of recognition as a decision-making and technical aid for zoning and planning both within and outside the state of Baden-Württemberg. The impetus for this booklet was an amendment to Germany’s existing Federal Building Law with its new requirements for consideration of climatic conditions in zoning and planning.

The revised edition of 1992 was supplemented by the “Climate Booklet for Urban Development, Version 2” in 1993. The specific topics dealt with in this second booklet took into consideration frequently heard questions from the realm of planning practice. Both booklets were then updated and combined into one brochure. Fundamentals, selected topics, and concrete planning recommendations are once more the highlights here, in which the planning, technical, and legal possibilities and limitations for a climate-sensitive urban development are explained.

Recently the term “climate” has become connected with a global threat to life on earth, the cause of which is the almost unlimited release of so-called nonpoisonous greenhouse gases from human activity. As one set of actions for the necessary protection of our atmosphere, urban development considerations and measures on the local level can contribute to reductions in energy use and the associated minimization of pollutant entry into the earth’s atmosphere. In accordance with the motto “Think global, act local!”, rational energy uses and the introduction of renewable energies are promoted and supported by the Interior- and Economic Ministry of Baden-Württemberg. These are based in large part on the knowledge and consideration of climatic conditions.

With the summarized materials in this Climate Booklet for Urban Development, the Ministry of Economy hopes to assist all those concerned with urban development and planning in a proper consideration of climate-specific concerns, and wishes a similarly wide propagation for this booklet as its predecessors.
 

Stuttgart, January 2008