Research

Biodiversity loss is considered the next big global crisis, overshadowing the COVID‐19 pandemic and climate change. Biodiversity loss and climate change are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. However, many people perceive both biodiversity loss and climate change as abstract and psychologically distant threats. Citizens and farmers may struggle with translating these global crises into imminent concerns they can identify and act on in their local livelihood. BIODIVERCITI engages citizens and farmers to reflect on the interrelation between biodiversity loss and climate change and the role they personally play in these crises in a familiar environment – their own garden and cropland. The project analyses how beliefs and behaviours may transfer from biodiversity to climate action in order to transform mindsets and practices. BIODIVERCITI aims to close the gap how to leverage engagement with biodiversity to simultaneously advance engagement with climate action. Therein, the project pursues four research questions: - Which improvements in biodiversity indicators can be achieved? - How do individual climate action and efficacy beliefs change? - How may citizens and farmers collaborate for combating biodiversity loss and climate change? - How may gardens and farmland provide conjunctive elements in habitats? BIODIVERCITI is a multi‐stakeholder citizen science project. The project involves and observes citizens and farmers and their respective gardens and cropland over the timeframe of two vegetation periods. Citizens and farmers receive personal advice on enhancing biodiversity, observe their garden/cropland and are evaluated how their attitudes and beliefs change. Each participating citizen is supported and trained in biodiversity‐enhancing elements and techniques suitable for their garden, which species may benefit, and how to identify and monitor these species. Farmers are grouped by their participation in the Austrian agri‐environmental programme ÖPUL and supplementary organic farming certification.

The project supports the revision and creation of a guide for integrating relevant provisions of the Alpine Convention and its protocols into the practice of municipal spatial planning. To this end, the project will carry out a legal dogmatic analysis and develop indicators for assessing planned planning decisions. The results are validated in stakeholder workshops and then published. The project thus contributes to better consideration of the Alpine Convention protocols in planning practice.

Cities and municipalities are particularly affected by climate change and its impacts. All Austrian cities therefore need to take measures. The planning sector in particular is called upon to provide appropriate adaptation services, as every spatial planning decision has a climatic impact, and the consequences of climate change have a spatial impact. Some Austrian cities have currently prepared urban climatic analysis and are partially integrating them in their spatial development policies. These urban climatic analysis usually contain two components: an urban climatic analysis maps and an urban climatic planning recommendation maps. As there are no standardized methods for the generation of urban climatic analysis worldwide the project “OSCAR - Objectifying and standardizing urban climate analyses for climate-resilient urban planning” aims to close that research gap by researching and preparing the basis for the standardization and objectification process. The OSCAR project has thus the following overall objectives: (1) Development of an objectified and standardized model for UCM, (2) Accelerate the assessment of urban climate conditions, (3) Provide the basis and method to make climate adaptation measures numerically and rapidly tangible on a city scale level, (4) Enable comparability of urban climate conditions of a city over time or with other cities and (5) Provide secured planning recommendations through validated methods. The overarching methodological approach is inter- and transdisciplinary as well as a user-centred. By combining individual contributions and methods from 3 scientific fields - natural science (meteorology, climatology), engineering science (planning) as well as social science (participation), OSCAR uses a mixed method approach to unite these crucial fields of science. The results of the basic research oriented project OSCAR will support both science and practice. The central outcome of the project is the creation of a scientific and methodological basis for the production of objectified and standardized urban climatic analysis.