What is BLIZ?

BLIZ is a scientific project consisting of different, interlinked subprojects.

Several scientists from different institutes are working closely together within BLIZ to better understand the interactions between society, land use, ecosystem services and biodiversity in Bavaria under the influence of climate change until 2100.

By developing options for action for politics, business and society in times of climate change, BLIZ makes a decisive contribution to a sound handling of the consequences of global warming in Bavaria.

BLIZ is not only characterized by interdisciplinary expertise and scientific stringency, but also by a close link to practice.
More precisely, the research results are always communicated to decision-makers in the form of practical recommendations for action and made available to the German and international public through a network of partners.

BLIZ is funded by the climate research network bayklif, an initiative of the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts.

On the following pages you can find information on the background, objectives and approach of the project, the individual subprojects, the partner institutions and the experts involved.
Also read more about our latest research findingsvacancies and upcoming events.

We are pleased about your interest!

Update 2021

In the first project phase of BLIZ, sectoral models for the simulation of ecosystem, biodiversity and land use changes at the Bavarian level were developed, parameterized and tested with observation and measurement data, and model uncertainties were estimated. Policy action spaces were investigated from local to international scales and possible future developments were estimated.

In the second phase of the project, narratives are being developed now that incorporate policy action spaces and climate projections. These narratives result in three BLIZ scenarios for Bavaria for which all models provide simulation results based on a coherent modeling protocol that are incorporated into the synthesis. Uncertainties in the model forecasts are also taken into account here. In the second phase of the project, recommendations for social and economic land use strategies will be derived from the scenarios and discussed and evaluated with practice partners.

Under outcomes you will find a list of all publications.

  1. Since the beginning of the project, the staff members of the subprojects of the BLIZ project have met at least three times a year to discuss the general progress of the project, as well as updates from the subprojects.At the end of 2021, the 10th internal workshop took place.
  2. On October 21, 2019, the BLIZ project opened the public lecture series of the FGG (Franconian Geographical Society) at the FAU Erlangen with the title: Challenges of Climate Change for Rural Areas in Bavaria. This resulted in “Challenges of climate change in Bavaria” Mitteilungen der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft (FGG) Volume 67 by Pohle et al. (2021). In 11 articles, this volume of the FGG gives an overview of the results from BLIZ.
  3. The BLIZ workshop “How to predict future land use and biodiversity change under climatic change at the regional level”, held online 05 – 07 October 2020, resulted in the perspective paper by Cabral et al. (to be submitted to People & Nature) “The road to integrating climate change effects on land use change in regional biodiversity models”. This review highlights existing approaches to biodiversity modeling and suggests how land use and climate change effects can be better integrated into biodiversity modeling. All TPs from BLIZ and other collaborative partners are involved here.
  4. From June 21 – July 19 2021, the BLIZ Summer School “Multidisciplinary Research and Synthesis” was held online. Subproject 2 and the BLIZ coordination organized this with 19 PhD students* from the bayklif projects BLIZ, AquaKLIF, LandKLIF, ADAPT, HyBBEx, BayTreeNet and MintBIO. Further interesting project ideas emerged. from this.
How will climate change affect nature, society and economy in Bavaria? BLIZ contributes to our understanding of the Bavarian future in times of global warming.