Research Project: Urban Agriculture Casablanca (UAC)

Project description

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the research program "Research for the Sustainable Development of Megacities of Tomorrow, Focus: Energy- and climate-efficient structures in urban growth centres". The program addresses the issues of fast growing and future mega-cities with the aim of the development of energy and climate efficient settlement strategies reflecting climate change. The coordination of the project is carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Research Centre of the Federal Republic of Germany (DLR; PT-DLR ).

Casablanca

©TU Berlin

The project was designed for both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. The research contributions of the Chair of Climatology consisted in the "West Africa Reanalysis (NWAR)", which is based on dynamic downscaling of the NCEP FNL Operational Data Model Global Tropospheric Analyses considering also sea surface temperatures and land cover. Further research tasks include the study of the regional impact of climate change and climate variability, the creation of agro-meteorological information services and the support for the development of multifunctional and climate-efficient space systems for the region. The development of a multifunctional knowledge base promoted an efficient project-wide work. Web-based information services for the environment with focus on the region of Casablanca (Casablanca WISE) as well as the development of an e-learning module "Moroccan Environment" for pupils aged nine to twelve, represent further major project contributions.

Project duration: April 2008 - March 2013