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Climate change is severely impacting cities and their surrounding areas, highlighting the need for new visions of the future and innovative solutions and in multiple facets of our lives. MetroLab has developed a creative and visionary mapping approach to address the climate crisis on the metropolitan scale. It aims to identify real needs for action and to show new pathways to address the climate crisis, with a particular focus on the Vienna metropolitan area.
The creative mapping approach reveals multi-layered spatial phenomena, functional linkages and spatial relationships between the city and its surroundings, visually communicating key trends and illustrating how climate goals can be achieved through integrated, cross-border development.
This interdisciplinary method is to be applied not only in Vienna, but also in other metropolitan regions in order to make the necessary measures tangible and to promote the discussion on integrated urban planning in the context of climate neutrality.
The process of mapping a zero carbon city region is based on a planning process that consists of three main phases. Although the planning process of a metropolitan region has to be adapted to fit its specific spatial context and planning culture, there are three main phases that MetroLab proposes for the development of a zero carbon city region.
Comprehensive research on the status quo of climate neutrality, major sources of greenhouse gas emissions from different sectors, and analysis of policies and targets. Data processing led to the identification of key development trends in 5 areas of life (“moving”, “living”, “producing”, “consuming”, “wasting”). Within this structure, a comprehensive database was created. In addition, a podcast format was created in which renowned international experts from science and research, business and politics discussed key challenges to climate neutrality and best-practice solutions in various areas.
Outcome: comprehensive database on main emitting sectors, podcast with experts from science, research and business
In the Emerging Phenomena Atlas, development trends and phenomena related to climate neutrality are spatially visualized in a unified graphic language. The chapter structure of the atlas refers to the five identified areas of life: moving, living, producing, consuming, and wasting. For each of these defined areas, the atlas contains clearly structured statements, so-called “emerging phenomena”. The status quo is analyzed and spatial levers for climate neutrality are visualized. These in turn form the basis for the development of the strategies and future scenarios.
Outcome: Atlas of Emerging Phenomena with a comprehensive collection of data and key trends made visually accessible
MetroLab uses the findings of the previous phases to develop comprehensive strategies that address multiple sources of greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously, rather than tackling each in isolation. To put these strategies into action, MetroLab has created a “Zero Carbon City Region Toolbox” of practical tools designed to reduce emissions by promoting sustainable spatial relationships across the metropolitan region. The tools are applied to the spatial context to visualize the impact of these tools through creative mappings that show potential pathways to climate neutrality.
Outcome: Strategies and toolbox for zero carbon city regions, creative mapping to visualize new pathways to climate neutrality
MetroLabs’ research into the major greenhouse gas emitters in the Vienna Metropolitan Region revealed that five sectors in particular are responsible for the majority of emissions in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. Their flows and systems are highly interconnected between Vienna and the surrounding suburban regions, meaning that reducing their emissions could be most efficiently addressed at the metropolitan level. To solve the complex and diverse challenges of the climate crisis, it is necessary to take a closer look at these five areas and address them with integrated solutions to develop new pathways towards a zero carbon city region.
The way we move has a significant impact on our carbon emissions as the transportation sector is one of the world’s largest consumers of fossil fuels. From daily commuting to international trade, our reliance on carbon-intensive modes of transportation contributes to air pollution, resource depletion, and the acceleration of climate change. Understanding the complex interactions between transportation infrastructure, energy use, and metropolitan planning is critical to developing innovative solutions that reduce emissions and promote sustainable mobility.
The way we live and build plays a critical role in our greenhouse gas emissions as this sector is responsible for a significant proportion of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Despite efforts to improve resource-efficient typologies and adopt sustainable practices, the building sector remains a significant challenge in the quest to reduce emissions. Understanding the complex interactions between building practices, density, typologies, and urban planning is essential to reimagining a more sustainable future for our living spaces.
The production sector has a significant impact on our carbon emissions. Despite advances in technology and efficiency, many production processes remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels and are associated with high levels of waste and pollution. Understanding the complex relationships between production methods, supply chain dynamics, and resource management is critical to developing innovative strategies to minimize emissions and transition to a more sustainable and circular economy.
The way we consume, from the products we buy to the energy we use and the food we eat, has a significant impact on our carbon emissions. As global consumption increases, so does the pressure on natural resources, production cycles and the carbon-intensive systems that support them, perpetuating a cycle of environmental degradation. By understanding the links between consumption patterns, resource use and carbon footprints, we can develop more sustainable lifestyles and policies that reduce emissions and promote a greener, more equitable future.
Waste generation is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions. When waste in its various forms is not only a lost resource, but when products and materials are discarded, the energy and resources invested in their production are effectively wasted, resulting in additional emissions throughout their lifecycle, from production to disposal. Understanding the complex links between waste generation, resource inefficiency and carbon emissions is essential for developing strategies to reduce waste and promote the transition to a circular economy.
In May 2024, MetroLab organized an international forum in Vienna to discuss different perspectives on the role of metropolitan regions in the climate crisis, including a lecture series with international experts and key stakeholders from Italy, France, Germany and Spain on different strategies and insights for the transformation towards zero-carbon metropolitan regions in Europe, and a panel discussion in which international experts as well as key stakeholders from the Viennese context from planning and design applied the international approaches to the Viennese context and discussed possible solutions to the main challenges. The aim of the forum was to facilitate a collaborative exchange on the transformation towards a zero carbon metropolitan region and to sharpen solutions and insights through constructive dialogue and collaboration.
The Emerging Phenomena Atlas was created to visualize the comprehensive data collection and analysis of the distribution and origin of greenhouse gas emissions in relation to the different areas of life in the Vienna Metropolitan Area. It is a visual synthesis of the complex demographic, spatial, social and economic connections and interdependencies of greenhouse gas emissions, making complicated relationships accessible and easy to understand. The Emerging Phenomena Atlas highlights the main trends in greenhouse gas emissions in different sectors in the Vienna Metropolitan Region and forms the basis for developing future transformation strategies.
Addressing the complex challenges of the climate crisis requires holistic, integrated strategies that focus on more than just one sector at a time. To do so, the MetroLab team has used the findings of the Emerging Phenomena Atlas as a basis for developing comprehensive strategies and then takes these strategies and translates them into specific, actionable tools and spatial interventions in the Vienna Metropolitan Region. These tools and systems are then applied to the spatial context of the Vienna Metropolitan Region, resulting in visionary mappings that show the potential for change and visualize new pathways towards climate neutrality at the Vienna Metropolitan Area.
MetroLabs’ research into the major greenhouse gas emitters in the Vienna Metropolitan Region revealed that five sectors in particular are responsible for the majority of emissions in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. Their flows and systems are highly interconnected between Vienna and the surrounding suburban regions, meaning that reducing their emissions could be most efficiently addressed at the metropolitan level. To solve the complex and diverse challenges of the climate crisis, it is necessary to take a closer look at these five areas and address them with integrated solutions to develop new pathways towards a zero carbon city region.
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The International Dialogue on Metropolitan Planning, which consists of a four-part dialogue series, kicked off in fall 2020 with the first two MetroLab Forums on mobility and urban growth. This was followed in 2021 by two more Forums on the importance of resilient urban landscapes and the new role and identity of city regions.
During a two-day program each MetroLab Forum offered the opportunity to listen to exciting lectures by international experts, participate in walkshops and watch and discuss selected movies. The overall objective is to learn more about the planning challenges and approaches of other metropolitan regions and, in the spirit of this translocal learning experience, to share innovative tools for metropolitan planning and design. In doing so, current planning requirements in the Vienna City Region are reflected and the discussion of alternative approaches and integrated development strategies is stimulated together with local experts and interested parties.
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