Measuring transformation concerning climate change and extreme events at the regional level: actor needs and spatial assessment in the Cologne district, Germany

Abstract The article focuses explicitly on transformation and analyzes how it can be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively in a case study region in western Germany. It addresses blue, critical, and green infrastructures in a region that was affected by the 2021 floods in Europe. Together with regional actors, co-creative solutions for developing adaptation strategies and infrastructure planning will be developed. Using and combining different conceptual models and applying them to the project region as well as to human infrastructure highlights the different types of change and transformation. This also shows the complexity of such an overall assessment, which needs to include a lot of diverse actors and disciplines. The project's first results are overviews of national and cross-regional changes to infrastructures and administrative structures after the 2021 floods in Germany and at the district level. The interim results reveal that more needs and plans exist than real, measurable transformations and that certain transformations stem from planning long before the floods in 2021. Maps and land use potentials are presented that provide overviews of regional differences in flood, drought, and wildfire exposure and capacities for nature-based solutions. Both the conceptual models developed in this study as well as the application examples could be useful for other researchers and administrative bodies to measure transformation to climate change and other stimuli.