- Regensburg performs poorly in heat study
Regensburg is the city in Bavaria that is particularly heavily sealed and has the least green space, according to a new study. The German Environmental Aid (DUH) has examined 190 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants with regard to these factors in a "heat check". The background to this is that heavily sealed municipalities heat up particularly in summer, while green spaces bring cooling to the residents.
According to the statistics, Ludwigshafen and Heilbronn perform particularly poorly, followed by Regensburg, which comes in third place nationwide. The area of the Upper Palatine city is sealed to around 54 percent, according to DUH figures. In addition, Regensburg only has a green volume number of 1.95. This is the figure for three-dimensional vegetation - such as the volume of trees per area.
An average high deciduous tree has a green volume of about 3,400 cubic meters, explained DUH. Aschaffenburg, for example, has a green volume number of 3.81 - the best in the Free State. However, there are still several municipalities outside Bavaria with more green.
Several Bavarian cities perform poorly in the national comparison after Regensburg: Ingolstadt (7th place), Nuremberg (8th), Schweinfurt (11th), and Fürth (12th). Landshut was rated the best in Bavaria. The Lower Bavarian district capital has a sealing of 43.7 percent and a green volume number of 2.71.
"In times of the climate crisis, our cities need unsealed soil for water infiltration and green spaces for cooling," said DUH Federal Managing Director Barbara Metz. The continuing trend towards more concrete and less green is alarming. "Instead of becoming livable places of relaxation, our cities are turning into heat hells." The federal government must stop the sealing of areas. For example, uniform standards for the greening of schoolyards could be prescribed.
Environmental associations have been calling on the state and federal governments for many years to stop the construction of green spaces and thus the increasing sealing. In Bavaria, the Augsburg Environmental Agency has had the sealing examined twice since the turn of the millennium. The settlement and traffic areas in the Free State have increased from around 47 to about 51 percent between the years 2000 and 2015. "The total sealed area in Bavaria in 2015 is about 4,200 square kilometers - almost eight times the area of Lake Constance," the authority explained.
The study conducted by the German Environmental Aid (DUH) revealed that Regensburg has the third-worst climate in terms of sealing and green space among 190 cities in Germany. Moreover, the green volume number in Regensburg is significantly lower than that of other cities, such as Aschaffenburg, which has the best score outside of Bavaria.
