On the development of a standardised method for climate vulnerability and risk assessment (CVRA) for buildings and properties

The IPCC AR6 underlines that climate risks need to be embedded into the architectural design and retrofitting of housing. The Federal Government of Germany acknowledges that buildings are at risk from climate change impacts and intends to lead the way by making federally owned buildings more climate-adapted. The parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany passed the Climate Adaptation Act in November 2023 (effective July 1, 2024). The procedure of Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (CVRA) for buildings remains unregulated on a global, European, or national level. Simultaneously, regulations, such as the EU-taxonomy, but also certification systems and national quality seals require CVRAs for buildings. Up to date, an abundance of methodologies is in development. Yet, calculation bases are often non-transparent. Therefore, there is a strong need to provide building planners and policy makers with a user-friendly methodology for buildings to assess the vulnerability and risk against climate impacts on an early stage. As part of the revision of Germany’s federal system for planning and assessing sustainable buildings (BNB) this paper presents a draft for a standardised CVRA to assess the criterion of climate change adaptation. On this basis, the presented approach will be further developed so that it can also be used separately and outside of building certification. The iterative development of the CVRA approach is based on a comparative analysis of existing methodologies within and outside of building certification. Part of the development process was scientific feedback by external experts and pilot applications to assess reproducibility. The present paper outlines core elements of a CVRA for buildings and suggests a practical, process-oriented approach, based on current scientific standards, databases and climate projections. The proposal defines temporal and spatial system boundaries, qualitative and quantitative indicators, and benchmarks suitable for a final assessment in the certification process as well as for the planning phase.