Digital innovations in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) could make a significant contribution to adapt to a changing climate. AI enables precise and rapid execution of complex calculations of meteorological variables in three-dimensional urban space. The rapid computation allows for small-scale building-level predictions as well as long-term local climate predictions. Small-scale forecasts allow better estimation of local impacts of extreme weather events. Long-term forecasts, on the other hand, allow for intelligent spatial planning taking into account different climate projections, the local frequency of urban climate hazards, and urban development scenarios.

The goal of Intelligence for Cities (I4C) is to improve the adaptation of cities to climate change through a process chain from data collection, analysis and environmental forecasting to concrete measures. The Chair of Environmental Meteorology is involved in the project with two sub-projects which include the downscaling / prediction of thermal comfort and stress at local, building-resolved scale using AI and the prediction of storm impacts and storm damage using large eddy simulation (LES) and AI.

I4C is a joint project between the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, the Freiburg-based Fraunhofer Institutes ISE and IPM and the Sustainability Centre Freiburg. I4C is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through the funding initiative "KI Leuchttürme".