Not only does population grow in the metropolitan cities of Cairo, Nairobi and Istanbul, so does the temperature, as building materials such as asphalt and cement store up with heat. Densely built areas easily attract heat and clearly have higher temperatures than surrounding poorly inhabited or agricultural areas. As a result, climate change strengthens this effect on cities.

The aim of efficient city planning is to react to these challenges and keep these cities liveable. City planners from Cairo University and Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya, as well as meteorologists from the Istanbul Technical University and Freie Universität Berlin have been working with other agents on-site to give recommendations to city governments on how to reduce temperatures within these cities. Those participating in the project are Prof. Dr. Ulrich Cubasch, Dr. Ines Langer und Prof. Dr. Sahar Sodoudi from the Institute for Meteorology. They are bringing their expertise and technical equipment to produce a climate model.

LOCLIM 3 is part of the EU project ERAfrica, which supports the cooperation in research and science between the EU and African countries. On the German side, the project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In addition, funds come from participating ministries of Egypt, Kenya and Turkey. The coordination of LOCLIM 3 takes place at the faculty of Urban and Regional Planing at Cairo University. LOCLIM originally emerged from a workshop organized by Freie Universität Berlin at the Technical University of Berlin-Campus El Gouna, financed by DAAD in 2013. Participants from Egypt and Germany installed a measurement station, whose result can be used by the city of El Gouna, in order to adapt itself to the meteorological conditions.