Big city life is vibrant. Many people, however, means reduced quality of air. The Planning Advice Map Urban Climate (PHK), which was developed in 2001, aims at improving the climate.
The PHK comprises results of extensive urban climate modelling. In addition to comprehensive simulations, it also includes evaluations of long-term measurement series at Berlin stations, such as Alexanderplatz or Dahlem. The key focus of the PHK is the thermal situation, i.e. thermal load, in the city. More than 60 percent of the city area have been classified as “unfavourable” or “less favourable” in that regard. This means that our natural air con is letting us down in these areas. Updrafts would normally pull the heated air higher up, which would then be replaced with cooler air from green spaces.
Climatic concerns can be integrated adequately into urban development planning based on the PHK. The latest version of 2015 includes a main map as well as supplementary planning instructions and measures. The main map assesses the load situation and presents potential strategies for relief. The supplementary planning instructions feature partial topics of urban development in combination with the evaluations from the main map and additional high-resolution technical data and geo-data. Unlike the previous map, the latest PHK also contains 30 individual action packages assigned to each individual block and block segment.