Despite heavy snowfall several guests arrived for a workshop on climate adaptation at Hildegardis Gymnasium – a high school in Kempten, which has already strived for systematic climate protection since 2016.
Which impacts of climate change do we expect locally? How can we effectively adapt to future climate conditions? Which adaptation measures has the city of Kempten already taken? Many of these questions were addressed in insightful presentations by the local water authority, the climate protection management of Kempten and eza!. Also, the climate ambassadors of the school presented their projects – for example planting campaigns for a climate-adapted forest restructuring or protection of regional bogs.
For demonstration pupils could experiment with a natural hazard model supervised by our project partners from the Universität der Bundeswehr München. What happens to a village built close to the river side during a heavy rain event? How can this village be protected by sandbags, dams or polders? When does a bridge collapse during flooding? All of this could be playfully experienced with the model by the pupils, teaches and councillors.
Finally, climate ambassadors discussed their open questions with all guests. Everyone agreed that climate protection still has the highest priority – but simultaneously we need to get better prepared for the impacts of climate change. In Kempten we need more green and unsealed spaces for cooling and water retention. As we all learned today, water is the central element of climate adaptation!
