Background & Objectives

The anthropogenic climate change is scientifically confirmed and can be observed in the Saxon-Polish border region. Temperature and precipitation regimes and weather patterns or the resulting effects on water balance and soils already show changes that will continue very likely in the future. The border region has a common relationship in the field of air quality. Despite the improvement in air quality in recent decades, air pollution continues to be a significant factor influencing ecosystems in the border region. The dispersion and deposition of air pollutants is strongly influenced by precipitation conditions and by wind conditions, which are likely to change under future climate conditions.

On both, the German and the Polish side, forest areas belong to the affected ecosystems, which are particularly vulnerable to the stress factor climate change. Concerning long-term adaptation of forest areas against climate change there are currently too little cross-border information on the development of climate and air quality. These aspects are highlighted in the project and a common data base is developed.

Another focus is on the topic bioclimate. For both, population and tourism,  bioclimatic conditions  have a great importance on living quality and quality of stay. Longer lasting heat waves, an increasing number of tropical nights or a decreasing snow guarantee are the results of rising temperatures, which have negative effects particularly on population and tourism in the border area. Because there are currently no sufficient information on the influence of climate change on bioclimate, selected bioclimate indicators as well as ozone pollution are examined in detail.

bld_KLAPS Über das Projekt_Bildergalerie EN

Objectives

The main objectives of the cross-border project are to raise awareness of the public and the knowledge transfer to ensure suitable and early adaptation on climate change in the border region. Here the project particularly focuses on climate conditions and air pollutant deposition as well as the exceedance of critical load, especially for vulnerable forest ecosystems. Climate and air pollution diagnosis and the modelling of future conditions in the Polish-Saxon border region are analysed based on a common and consistent data set of climate and air pollution measurements. The project results form a basis for developing common strategies for environmental and climate protection and adequate adaptation management to climate change.
By focusing on the key issues the following results were obtained:

• Creation of a common data base for climate change and deposition of air pollutants
• Creation of a common diagnosis of climate and air pollutants and modelling of climate change and air pollution in the Polish-Saxon study area
• Analysis and projection of Critical Load, especially for forest ecosystems in the study area
• Investigations on the influence of bioclimate under the conditions of climate change
• Raise awareness of stakeholders and population as well as knowledge transfer on climate adaptation in the studied fields