Heat alarm in Baden-Württemberg: Many cities fall through!

Heat alarm in Baden-Württemberg: Many cities fall through!

The current heat check of German environmental aid shows alarming results for many cities in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. In the middle of this week, in which the temperatures in many regions rise above 30 degrees, numerous cities do badly. As SWR , 190 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants were examined, where LAG.

cities in the heat check

a total of 31 cities received the heat traffic lights on red, including 15 in Baden-Württemberg or Rhineland-Palatinate. No city from these federal states was able to place in the green. The cities that failed in the heat check include:

• Baden-Württemberg: Mannheim, Ludwigsburg, Heilbronn, Rastatt, Waiblingen, Karlsruhe, Offenburg, Böblingen, Freiburg im Breisgau, Constance, Heidelberg.
• Rhineland-Palatinate: Ludwigshafen, Worms, Mainz, Bad Kreuznach.

However, there is also hope: Stuttgart scores with a variety of green areas and is therefore in the yellow area. Neustadt an der Weinstrasse also received a yellow card due to new test criteria.

infrastructure and measures

The urgency to take measures against the heat is underlined by the dramatic growth of sealed areas in German cities, such as Deutsche Environmental Aid . The daily consumption of over 50 hectares for settlements and traffic contributes to tightening the problem. Frank Winkler from the GKV alliance for Health Baden-Württemberg also emphasizes the need for resorts in cities.

The measures that have been taken to date include the installation of drinking water well and the creation of "cool cards" in cities such as Mannheim, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe. These initiatives are intended to help offer public places for cooling. In addition, the importance of legally binding goals for reducing the area sealing until 2035 is pointed out.

conclusion

The examination illustrates the urgent need to integrate more green in urban areas. Cities like Detmold, Ratingen and Potsdam, which are not very sealed and have a high green volume, show that such measures are possible. The average proportion of sealing in settlement and traffic areas in Germany is already 45%. Problems such as the loss of large trees that play a crucial role in the cooling of the cities must be tackled urgently if you want to meet future heat waves. Further information on this topic can be found in the report of the Environmental Bundesamtes .