DIFU website "Resource Efficiency in Municipalities
Published
The new website was implemented by the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) as part of the project "Resource Policy at Municipal and Regional Level" (kommRess) on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency. Resource protection is becoming increasingly important in environmental policy. Against this background, the Federal Environment Ministry wants to provide greater support to municipalities in matters of resource efficiency. The website provides an overview of the many possibilities for municipal action and shows good examples of how resources can be conserved.
Almost 1 billion euros in federal funding for urban development and social integration in neighbourhoods in 2020
The federal and state governments have jointly developed a new structure for urban development funding from 2020: A total of €790 million will be available in three (instead of the previous six) concentrated urban development funding programmes. In addition to the funding requirement of climate change/climate adaptation, including urban greening, the possibility of stronger inter-municipal cooperation has also been added.
A further 200 million euros are available in the "Social Integration in the Neighbourhood" investment pact. This will enable the municipalities to press ahead with the expansion and refurbishment of their social infrastructure.
Federal Minister of the Interior Seehofer signed the corresponding administrative agreements today. Federal funding for urban development and social integration will thus be stabilised at a high level.
Federal Minister of the Interior Seehofer: "We are streamlining our funding structure. This will make it easier for cities and municipalities to implement their projects. In addition, climate protection will become a funding requirement. Urban development funding without climate protection will no longer exist in the future."
The following federal-state urban development programs are available for the 2020 funding year:
"Living Centres" to promote inner development and historic city centres (300 million euros),
"Social cohesion" to promote coexistence in neighbourhoods (EUR 200 million),
"Growth and Sustainable Renewal" to adapt to demographic and structural change and to design liveable neighbourhoods (290 million euros),
"Investment Pact for Social Integration in the Neighbourhood" (200 million euros).
The administrative agreements will enter into force as soon as all federal states have countersigned.
The urban development funding provided by the federal and state governments triggers considerable follow-up investments. For the year 2020, it is assumed that the total investment volume triggered by the funding will be around 12 billion euros, and the expected gross value added will be around 14 billion euros. The subsidies also support the small and medium-sized local economy to a large extent: approx. 36 percent of the expected construction volume remains in the municipality itself, another approx. 48 percent in the region with a radius of 50 km. The construction industry benefits from this with 71 percent of the implemented investment funds.
Source: PM of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for building and homeland (BMI) from 19.12.2019
Photo: Peter und der Wolf Communications GmbH / LHM
At a press conference today, Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter, together with City Planning Councillor Professor Dr. (l) Elisabeth Merk, presented an overall plan for Munich's mobility in the coming decades.
Where could new underground and tram lines be built, where could the new cycling expressways run, and where can people switch from their cars to environmentally conscious means of transport? The mobility of tomorrow will be characterised by an optimal interlocking of different forms of mobility - first and foremost an optimised and broadly developed public transport system, a wide network of cycle paths, new offers for commuters in so-called HOV lanes ("High-occupancy vehicle lanes"), dedicated bus lanes and clever mobility concepts in settlement development with innovative means of transport.
Not only population and economic growth pose major challenges for transport infrastructure and settlement development, but at the same time the urban goals for traffic safety ("Vision Zero"), the political and legal requirements for environmental and climate protection (air pollution control, CO2 neutrality) and technological progress (digitalisation and networking) must always be taken into account.
Mayor Dieter Reiter: "Only with a well-developed and, above all, cleverly networked mobility will we be able to master the great challenges. The overall concept published today contains many good ideas for the further expansion of our transport infrastructure. The backbone is, of course, local public transport, which we not only want to greatly expand, but also create further tangential and ring connections in its network. I see this look into the future as a good basis and impulse for further debates. However, the mobility of the future can only be successfully developed in cooperation with the Munich region. In recent years, the city council has passed several groundbreaking resolutions for well-connected, environmentally friendly and space-saving mobility. We want to continue this".
City Planning Councillor Professor Dr. (l) Elisabeth Merk. "In the overall concept, we want to bundle all important measures for sustainable transport planning. It is important to us that we tackle it together. In dialogue with citizens and stakeholders from the region".
Expansion of local public transport (ÖPNV)
Public transport is the backbone of sustainable mobility. To encourage even more people to switch from their cars to public transport, the service will be significantly improved - through the new main station, the second main line, new bus lanes, underground and tram lines, increased frequency, more reliability and comfort. The existing network will be decentralised by tangents and, where sensible, supplemented by innovative means of transport such as cable cars or on-demand services. The result is less congestion and freed-up space that can be used, for example, for lanes for express buses, cycle paths or as amenity spaces.
Improving the cycling infrastructure
Cycling in the city is becoming much safer and more attractive. The continuous and safe "Altstadt-Radlring" (Old Town Cycle Ring) demanded by the citizens' petition is being implemented step by step; every quarter, the city council also decides on a bundle of further measures to make the road network significantly more cycle-friendly. This means that the demands of the second citizens' petition "Radentscheid" will be largely realised by 2025. Munich's first cycle path from the Stachus in the direction of Garching and Unterschleißheim as well as five further star-shaped routes will connect the city centre with the surrounding area; a cycle ring connects several city districts.
New offers for the city-countryside commuter traffic
Work-related commuting between the city and the region is made easier: modern Park & Ride facilities are being built on the motorways and main access roads at the gates of the city. From there, express buses continue on to the city centre on separate lanes without traffic jams and loss of time. The occupancy rate of commuting cars is increased by allowing the bus lanes to be shared by vehicles with several occupants. These "high-occupancy vehicle lanes" are already successfully helping to reduce car traffic abroad. For the "first" and "last mile" to and from public transport stops, more sharing and on-demand services will be provided, for example call buses.
Car-reduced city centre
New parking regulations, fewer parking spaces, traffic-calmed zones and sustainable logistics concepts will reduce car traffic in the old town and city centre. The space thus freed up will benefit cycling, walking and public transport as well as the quality of stay and the green and open spaces that are so important for the urban climate. Necessary, unavoidable car journeys into the city centre will still be possible. However, it is primarily emission-free, innovative means of transport that will shape mobility here. Efficient city logistics concepts make delivery and loading traffic compatible.
Mobility concepts
When planning new neighbourhoods and urban renewal projects, mobility concepts are considered from the very beginning. The focus is on a lively, balanced structure of uses in which as many everyday needs as possible can be found in the immediate residential environment. Short distances, good internal and external access to the neighbourhood by public transport, car and bike sharing services enable people to live without their own cars and increase the quality of life.
Innovative means of transport
Mobility is strongly influenced by digitalisation and innovations. The City of Munich takes these up, plans ahead and is open to trends. Automated and connected driving is currently being researched together with partners from business, science and research; a cable car over the Frankfurter Ring is being studied for the north of Munich, which has heavy traffic. With all new technologies, the focus is on user needs.
On Wednesday, 12 February, the City Council will deal with other important resolutions on mobility in Munich in the Committee for Urban Planning and Building Regulations in addition to the draft resolution "Mobility Plan for Munich".
Timber construction can be cheaper than standard construction - At the same time significantly better CO2 balance
MNP Architects Munich, School Wangen
Current comparative calculations based on realized new buildings in timber construction show: Building with wood does not have to be more expensive than the standard construction method. This result is surprising, as it contradicts the common perception that timber construction is more expensive. At the same time, the CO2 balance of timber construction is significantly better; as a result, its CO2 avoidance costs are very favourable, in some cases even negative. An expansion of timber construction would therefore be climate protection at comparatively low cost.
The architect and developer of the Legep construction software, Holger König, has balanced the construction costs and CO2 emissions for the production of five public and private timber buildings and compared them with the results that would have been produced for the same buildings if they had been built in the conventional way. Legep can be used to calculate the manufacturing and life-cycle costs, energy requirements and environmental impact of buildings. In this case, König only looked at manufacturing. For the prices, he used current sirAdos data, which represent the market very realistically. He then went to the trouble that many architects, civil engineers and building owners shy away from: He modeled the buildings with the same area and cubature and the same energy standard, but replaced the wooden components with conventional materials - depending on the building project, solid masonry in brick, sand-lime brick or aerated concrete, or a column-beam supporting structure made of reinforced concrete. He used reinforced concrete for the floor slab, cellar, ceilings and flat roofs, mineral wool or polystyrene for the insulation, and plastic or aluminum frames for the windows. König explains the fact that four out of five buildings in timber construction cost less or the same as in standard construction with the industrial-technical development that many timber construction companies have undergone in recent years. Two of the timber buildings even achieved a negative CO2 balance in the manufacturing phase due to the large amount of renewable raw materials used, which act as carbon stores. In the other three buildings, a slightly higher proportion of non-wooden components, which every timber building also contains, caused the slightly positive CO2 balance.
If one relates the difference in CO2 savings to the difference in construction costs, one obtains the CO2 avoidance costs of timber construction. Negative abatement costs here mean that the builder has saved costs with timber construction compared to standard construction and at the same time protected the climate.
By increasing the proportion of timber construction, more climate protection can be achieved at low or even negative costs, while at the same time strengthening rural areas. The green-red state government in Baden-Württemberg has recognised this and created more favourable framework conditions for the building material in its state building code, which was amended on 1 March (information here). In contrast, some state building codes still contain legal obstacles to building with wood.
The city of Munich also wants to convince more builders to use timber construction: as part of its "Munich Energy Saving Promotion Programme", it has been granting a CO2 bonus for the use of timber and other renewable raw materials in building construction of 30 cents/kg since 2013 (information here).
A high insulation standard with insulating materials made from renewable raw materials is also a contribution to climate protection. The plant raw materials from which the insulating materials were obtained have bound CO2 from the atmosphere, which is now stored in the building material for long periods of time. And finally, heating based on renewable energies also reduces CO2 emissions.
The Agency of Renewable Resources (Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e.V.). (FNR) funded the determination of LCA baseline data for the Legep programme with funds from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) between 2004 and 2006.
Many new projects, new photo galleries or new individual project photos have been added to the web database www.siedlungen.eu in 2018. The following is an overview.
Addition to Nordstadt Karlsruhe
With 526 residential units, the two-storey extensions in timber frame construction are the largest contiguous timber construction project in a housing estate in Europe in the last 40 years
Photo: Bernhard Mangold-Märkel
Project link: http://sdg21.eu/db/aufstockung-nordstadt-karlsruhe
Also in category "Projects in development"There are now further options for narrowing down the project list.
Data protection according to the EU DSGVO
In addition, data protection was reviewed. The website was already EU GDPR compliant in most areas. However, some plugins were uninstalled and replaced or a few functions were deactivated for which it is not obvious whether they are GDPR-compliant. Read here the extended Privacy policy.
We use cookies to optimize our website and services.
Functional
Always active
Technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a particular service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that have not been requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access, which is solely for statistical purposes.Technical storage or access used solely for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary consent from your Internet service provider, or additional records from third parties, information stored or accessed for this purpose cannot generally be used alone to identify you.
Marketing
Technical storage or access is necessary to create user profiles, to send advertising or to track the user on a website or across multiple websites for similar marketing purposes.
