The climate in a city like Berlin often differs across individual areas. Different types of development, varying proportions of green spaces and different vegetation structures contribute to this. The location within the city itself also plays a role, as each area impacts upon the climate of other areas.
In the 1990s and at the beginning of the 2000s, a wealth of basic information was compiled. This involved information on the use of the roughly 25,000 blocks and block segment areas included in the Environmental Atlas, as well as data from measurement projects and stationary climate measurements carried out by the Technical University Berlin (Climatology Department). On this basis, individual functional relationships were analysed, located and evaluated in terms of urban climate.
Rather than following the method of a ‘synthetic’ climate functions map that is entirely based on urban structures, other criteria such as area size, location of the area within the city or its surroundings and the interrelationships between the areas were taken into account for Berlin. By including these aspects, the relevant functional areas could be distinguished with greater accuracy. In addition, required planning information on burdened and relieving areas as well as their sensitivity to increased use could be deduced.