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Climate change intensifies problems in the Dutch urban climate, such as more heat waves and intensive rain showers. Next to a spatial challenge, it is a social challenge to achieve climate adaptation. Inhabitants do not recognize the occurring problems, due to several perceptual barriers (e.g. high complexity of the problem, low visibility, lack of immediacy of the impacts).

The newly defined concept ‘climate revelatory visualisations’ carries the potential to tackle the perceptual barriers. This research examined what type of visualisations can reveal the occurring urban climate problems and their adaptive solutions best, in order to raise urban climate awareness.

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The visualisations are embedded in the context of a dense historic labourer’s neighbourhood (Assendorp, Zwolle), since common urban heat problems such as heat stress on hot summer days and water accumulation during peak rainfall occur here.

The visualisations are generated in a research-through-designing process, and tested on the criteria engagement, clarity, connectivity and trust by the local community. The quantitative and qualitative test results informed the revisions of the visualisations and provided insight in the awareness level of the community.