Dr. rer. nat. Christoph Schünemann

My research is driven by the question of how sustainability transformations in the building stock can be effectively implemented under real-world societal conditions, particularly within the tension between climate neutrality, climate resilience, complex decision-making processes, and diverse stakeholder interests.

At the core of my work is the integration of systems modelling, social science perspectives, and practice-oriented governance and transformation research. The aim is to design sustainability transformations that are more targeted, effective, and socially acceptable by accounting more comprehensively for the complexity of transformation processes and by integrating diverse forms of knowledge from science, policy, and society into the modelling of socio-ecological-technical systems.

Research Focus

Implementation research (knowledge-to-action research) on complex sustainability transformations of the building stock towards climate neutrality and climate resilience

• Social, organisational, and governance-related barriers and dynamics in implementation processes, including acceptance, decision-making behaviour, knowledge integration in multi-actor processes, and policy steering
• Integration of Systems Thinking and systemic perspectives into planning, governance, and decision-making processes
• Managing complexity and uncertainty in sustainability transformations
• Development and analysis of transformative governance and policy approaches for sustainability transitions in the building stock
• Investigation of how transdisciplinary system modelling approaches can support the development of transformative policy mixes and evidence-informed governance strategies
• Particular focus on transformation decisions in the building sector, especially heterogeneous private homeowner groups and school buildings

Methods and Approaches:

• Development of qualitative and quantitative system models of socio-ecological-technical transformation processes, particularly using System Dynamics
• Participatory system modelling and transdisciplinary research approaches for integrating diverse forms of knowledge
• Building performance simulations to assess the effectiveness of measures aimed at climate neutrality and climate resilience
• Development of evidence-informed decision-support models
• Integration of social science, governance, policy, and system modelling approaches

since 2019

Research Associate at the IOER

2015-2019

Staff member in an engineering office in Dresden in the fields of thermal building simulation, plant simulation and BIM

2013–2015

Postdoc at the Institute of Energy Technology at TU Dresden (focus on building monitoring, concept development for plus-energy houses and thermal building simulation)

2012–2013

Research associate at the Leibniz-Institute for Polymer Research Dresden e.V.

2009–2012

PhD student and research associate at the Institute for Applied Photophysics of the TU Dresden (field: morphological investigations of thin films in organic solar cells), PhD in 01/2013

2003–2009

Studied physics at the TU Dresden

 

• DEKASYS - Decarbonisation of the German residential building stock - Qualitative and quantitative system modelling of the societal motivation processes to increase the energetic renovation dynamics and the effectiveness of policy instruments
• KlimaKonform II - Joint project ReglKlim: Platform for climate-friendly action at municipal and district level in low mountain regions - expand, deepen, transfer
• PolitiKa - Policy recommendations Climate adaptation: Management of climate change impacts and analysis as well as (further) development of target group-specific climate adaptation instruments and policy recommendations.
• SAKI - Systems and assessment approaches for knowledge integration in spatial sustainability transformations’ contexts
• MultiRisk - Resilience of the built environment to natural hazards - methods for the identification and evaluation of multifunctional risk reduction concepts

Completed projects

• HeatResilientCity II  - Heat adaptation of urban building and settlement structures - Actor-oriented implementation support for increasing climate resilience and health care
• ClimateConform - Joint project ReglKlim: Joint platform for climate-conform action at community and district level in mountainous regions – Subproject 5: Object type based modelling and regional economic assessment of climate adaptation potentials
• HeatResBuild - Heat-Resilient Buildings - interaction of heat adaptation measures in buildings and open space, indicator-based overheating assessment, implementation dynamics and health aspects (P1026)
•  PoliMod - Feasibility study: Modeling climate adaptation measures: Actors, decisions and effectiveness
  - Approaches and methods of quantitative policy modeling to assess the effectiveness of climate change adaptation policy instruments in Germany -
• SYSDYM - Preliminary study on system dynamics modelling including an application test to analyse implementation obstacles regarding climate protection and climate adaptation measures
• HeatResilientCity - Heat-sensitive urban and neighbourhood development in large cities - Resident oriented knowledge generation and implementation in Dresden and Erfurt (10/2017-09/2020, BMBF/Leitinitiative Zukunftsstadt)
• ResAdBuildings -Assessment of resilience and adaptation to climate change of residential buildings focussing heavy rain and summer heat