Convener: Julia Hidalgo

In this session, the historical processes of climate issues integration in the planning policies of five cities are confronted. The selected cities, Arhem in The Netherlands, Honk Kong in China, Salvador in Brasil, Toulouse in France and Tunis in Tunisia, have in common that they are using or would use urban climate maps (Ren et al., 2011) as a tool to communicate and to integrate local and regional climate information into operational urban planning tools. Urban climate maps can reflect the conditions in different climate types so that specific recommendation can be derived. This cartographic formalization of climate data developed by the urban climate research community, often in collaboration with urban practitioners, seems to be an effective strategy in the initiation of climatic awareness at the urban scale. Furthermore, production of knowledge in adjacent domains which falls within the human and social sciences, such as the analysis of the regulatory framework and the governance systems, not only can booster the integration process, but also bring to light levers and brakes to this integration.   Putting into perspective five cases of cities from the North and the South, the session aims to draw lessons about methods and tools used in environmental or human and social sciences that can be mobilized to initiate climatic awareness in urban policies. From the first steps of Tunis to confirmed experiments such as Honkg-Kong, through cities where the integration effort is under way without affecting local action, the aim is to share knowledge and experiences on ways to promote climate-friendly urban planning practices.