Performance of urban climate-responsive design interventions in combining climate adaptation and mitigation

Although the need for climate adaptation and mitigation interventions in the urban realm has been widely acknowledged, comparative analyses of the extent to which such interventions combine the two sides of climate action are scarce. This study examines which climate-responsive design interventions can successfully facilitate climate adaptation and mitigation goals simultaneously to achieve carbon neutral, climate-resilient, and sustainable built environments. First, we shortlist predominant climate-responsive design interventions for seven different urban fabrics in the Netherlands. Second, we develop a framework to quantify the performance of these interventions on adaptation and mitigation using a set of indicators for the building scale and street scale. We find that green infrastructure interventions are the best performers regarding climate adaptation, and that interventions using photovoltaic technology perform best on climate mitigation. Furthermore, street scale interventions combine adaptation and mitigation goals to a larger extent than building scale interventions. Finally, we summarise the most important findings of this study, its implications for policy and decision-making, and provide recommendations for future research.