| Climate change presents a major challenge on international, national, and regional scale. It affects the scientific world as well as policymakers, representatives of economy, and the public. Consequently, the need for a dialogue between experts in climate change and the people affected is needed. However, structuring and communicating climate change information on the various scales is challenging and demands coordination.
Within the Helmholtz community in Germany, four regional Helmholtz climate offices are founded. One of their major goals is to encourage the communication between science and public. Primarily, this is done by close cooperation to the Helmholtz research centers at which each climate office is hosted. Second, a continuous exchange is supported beyond the Helmholtz research centers towards universities and authorities at state and federal level. Each regional Helmholtz climate office represents regional aspects of climate related research based on the scientific expertise from the hosting Helmholtz research institutes.
In the Climate Office for central Germany, Land use changes are among the most important factors of climate change driven environmental changes which have to be managed by the society in the next years. Since 1991 UFZ scientists research the causes and consequences of far-reaching environmental changes. The Climate Office offers information about climate change effects on the environmental compartments, land use strategies as well as regional strategies of adaptation.
The three federal states in Central Germany (Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia) handle adaptation to climate change very differently. The presentation focusses on alikeness and differences in the adaptation process. |