Climate change causes global effects on multiple levels. The anthropogenic input of greenhouse gases increases the atmospheric mean temperature. It furthermore leads to a higher probability of extreme weather events (e.g., heat waves, floods) and thus strongly impacts the habitats of humans, animals, and plants. Against this background, research and innovation activities are increasingly focusing on potential health-related aspects and feasible adaptation and mitigation strategies. Progressing urbanization and demographic change paired with the climate change-induced heat island effect exposes humans living in urban habitats to increasing health risks. By employing scientometric methods, this scoping study provides a systematic bird’s eye view on the epistemic landscapes of climate change, its health-related effects, and possible technological and nature-based interventions and strategies in order to make urban areas climate proof. Based on a literature corpus consisting of 2614 research articles collected in SCOPUS, we applied network-based analysis and visualization techniques to map the different scientific communities, discourses and their interrelations. From a public health perspective, the results demonstrate the range of either direct or indirect health effects of climate change. Furthermore, the results indicate that a public health-related scientific discourse is converging with an urban planning and building science driven discourse oriented towards urban blue and green infrastructure. We conclude that this development might mirror the socio-political demand to tackle emerging climate change-induced challenges by transgressing disciplinary boundaries.

Against the backdrop of multiple ongoing crises in European cities related to socio-spatial injustice, inequality and exclusion, we argue for a smart right to the city. There is an urgent need for a thorough account of the entrepreneurial mode of technocapitalist smart urbanism. While much of both affirmative and critical research on Smart City developments equate or even reduce smartness to digital infrastructures, we put actual smartness—in the sense of social justice and sustainability—at centre stage. This paper builds on a fundamental structural critique of (1) the entrepreneurial city (Harvey) and (2) the capitalist city (Lefebvre). Drawing upon Lefebvre’s right to the city as a normative framework, we use Smart City developments in the city of Graz as an illustration of our argument. Considering strategies of waste and mobility management, we reflect on how they operate as spatial and technical fixes—fixing the limits of capitalism’s growth. By serving specific corporate interests, these technocapitalist strategies yet fail to address the underlying structural causes of pressing urban problems and increasing inequalities. With Lefebvre’s ongoing relevant argument for the importance of use value of urban infrastructures as well as his claim that appropriation and participation are essential, we discuss common rights to the city: His framework allows us to envision sustainable and just—actually smart—alternatives: alternatives to technocapitalist entrepreneurial urbanisation. In this respect, a smart right to the city is oriented towards the everyday needs of all inhabitants.

Urban experiments are increasingly embraced for their potential to transform incumbent socio-technical systems by offering multifaceted, ‘high-quality’ learning. The early literature on sustainability transitions painted an optimistic picture of the impact of experiments, prescribing their role in managing transitions. More recently, scholars have elaborated on the different purposes and functions of experiments; however, they generally stress that, as of yet, there is scarce evidence for their effectiveness concerning transformation in practice. This paper develops a tool for more effective follow-ups after an experiment in practice, by anticipating contextual constraints on upscaling innovations. The tool has been developed through a design science research method by first doing action research on sustainable mobility innovations in four European cities and subsequently testing the prototype of the tool in five other places. Our findings suggest that this new tool improves conditions for wider implementation of the innovation being experimented with, and associated transformation. This is one key starting point for increasing the impact of experiments and accelerating urban sustainability transformation.

Der Trend zur Urbanisierung und Verdichtung von Wohnraum in Kombination mit der globalen Erwärmung zeigt immer deutlichere Auswirkungen auf das Stadtklima. Zur Reduktion der Belastungen für die Stadtbevölkerung sind gebäudegebundene Begrünungsformen eine wirksame Strategie. Vor allem die Verlagerung der Vegetation auf die bisher kaum genutzte Dachebene hat das Potenzial, negative Auswirkungen der Flächenversieglung und Flächenkonkurrenz auszugleichen, da intensive Dachbegrünungen vielfältige soziale, ökologische und ökonomische Vorteile haben. Da diese in der täglichen Planungs- und Wohnbaupraxis noch unzureichend genutzt werden, wurde in der Stadt Graz ein transformativer Kommunikations- und Lernprozess initiiert, der unter den beteiligten Akteuren nachhaltige Handlungsänderungen anregen soll. Dazu wurde auf Basis einer qualitativen Potenzialanalyse eine Dialogplattform ins Leben gerufen, die im Rahmen von interaktiven Workshop-Formaten relevante Stakeholder vernetzt hat. Dabei konnten Vorbehalte ausgeräumt, Erfahrungen ausgetauscht und Synergieeffekte ausgelotet werden. Durch die gemeinsame Konzeption von Demonstrationsprojekten soll das Erfahren, Experimentieren und Reflektieren mit innovativen Dachbegrünungen weiter angeregt werden. Dieser kontinuierliche Aushandlungs- und Lernprozess soll dazu beitragen, dass sich Dachgärten als wirksamer Lösungsansatz für die sozial-ökologischen Herausforderungen des modernen Wohn- und Städtebaus etablieren und weitere Nachhaltigkeitstransformationen gefördert werden.