Adaptation practitioners and researchers are developing new solutions to respond to climate change in cities and regions across Europe. The experiences resulting from the implementation of the adaptation solutions can provide valuable knowledge and inspiration to other territories facing similar challenges.
But knowing that a solution exists is only the first step. For local and regional authorities to learn from these experiences and consider whether solutions would succeed in their own context, they need practical information on what was implemented, why, how it worked and what can be learnt.
To help ensure that the solutions shared by the Climate Adaptation Mission are both relevant and useful, a set of criteria is applied by REGILIENCE+ when identifying solutions for promoting them into the knowledge platforms. Publicly available and free European climate adaptation knowledge platforms – like the Mission Portal and Climate-ADAPT – will then be more likely to publish and disseminate these solutions to the climate change adaptation community.
Aligning REGILIENCE+ solutions with European adaptation platforms
REGILIENCE+ supports the dissemination of practical adaptation solutions by transforming them into accessible knowledge that can be shared through platforms such as Climate-ADAPT and the Mission Portal.
To ensure compatibility of the solutions with these platforms, REGILIENCE+ follows the eligibility and qualifying criteria used by Climate-ADAPT for the selection of case studies.
Before developing a potential solution, four essential eligibility questions are considered:
1. Is the solution clearly relevant to climate change adaptation?
The contribution of the solution to climate change adaptation can be clearly demonstrated and potentially be useful to inform and inspire others.
However, adaptation does not necessarily have to be the initiative’s only objective. Adaptation measures developed, implemented or funded under other policy areas can also be relevant if they make a significant contribution to climate resilience. An example of this is the Intercommunal Climate smart business park Waidhofen an der Ybbs in Lower Austria case study which is focussed in developing a resource-efficient overall site development, that includes and balances multiple needs and objectives, among them adaptation.
2. Has the solution been implemented?
REGILIENCE+ aims to showcase more than assessments of climate risks or descriptions of what could be done to tackle them. Evidence suggests that the users of climate adaptation knowledge platforms want to know more about actual solution implementation and real-world testing, and we are delivering according to this belief.
A solution should involve an adaptation measure that has already been implemented, meaning piloted, demonstrated, and fully deployed in a real-world context, is currently being implemented or is creating enabling conditions needed for adaptation to take place. These enabling conditions can include improvements in governance, financing, knowledge or capacity building, which are currently identified as needs of the users. This is, for example, the case in evaluating the effectiveness of the Dutch National Heatwave Plan where the implementation of the plan was measured and reported.
Climate risk and vulnerability assessments are also an important foundation for adaptation, but an assessment alone is generally not a solution. It may become eligible when it has been endorsed and actively used by relevant authorities to develop or revise adaptation policies or measures, especially when addressing identified needs of adaptation. This is the case with empowering small rural municipalities through multilevel governance for adaptation in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, where a multilevel governance approach to adaptation, mixing bottom-up and top-down approaches, was successfully tested.
3. Is there enough information available to assess and evaluate the solution?
Sharing that a solution exists is not enough, as other regions also need to understand how it was implemented and what can be the expected results.
REGILIENCE+ looks for solutions with sufficient information available to describe the adaptation process and, when possible, to establish contact with the actors directly involved in the preparation, implementation or monitoring of the measure.
Such information makes an example particularly useful: monitoring data, evaluations, information on costs and benefits, or other forms of assessment can help practitioners understand not only what was done, but also whether it worked and under what conditions, and which barriers and problems were faced and how they were overcome. This is, for example, the case of prescribed fire and grazing as integrated approach to make forests climate resilient in Viseu Dão Lafões in Portugal, where costs and other relevant information for implementation is made available.
4. Is the solution geographically relevant?
For solutions intended for Climate-ADAPT, REGILIENCE+ follows its geographical scope, covering the 32 European Environment Agency member countries and eligible cooperating countries. For the solutions developed for the Mission Portal, initiatives from Mission Signatory countries are considered.
What makes a solution particularly useful for others?
Meeting the four essential criteria determines whether an initiative is eligible to be included in the REGILIENCE+ solution inventory, but five additional criteria can make a solution particularly relevant.
1. Avoiding maladaptation: An adaptation measure should reduce climate risk rather than create new vulnerabilities and transfer risks elsewhere, especially to socially vulnerable communities. Considering possible trade-offs helps ensure that solutions contribute to climate resilience and justice.
2. Local and sub-national relevance: Cities, regions and local authorities at the sub-national level are among the main users of the solution inventory, and knowledge made available by REGILIENCE+, making solutions implemented at these scales particularly valuable. National or European approaches can also be relevant to this inventory when they directly support adaptation at sub-national level.
3. Multi-sector approaches: Measures addressing several sectors or that use ecosystem-based approaches can provide useful insights into how adaptation can create benefits across different policy areas.
4. Evidence quality and transferability: Solutions are particularly useful when they document the adaptation process in sufficient detail. Information on costs and benefits, stakeholder participation, legal and institutional conditions, monitoring, co-benefits, lessons learnt and potential for replication can make an individual solution more valuable to others who are considering a similar approach.
5. Recent experience: To keep the inventory connected to emerging adaptation practices, preference is given to measures developed or implemented within the previous three years.
From project results to practical adaptation knowledge
Applying these criteria is part of REGILIENCE+’s approach to ensure that the solution inventory contains examples that are relevant to climate adaptation, grounded in implementation experience, and sufficiently documented to support learning and replication.
An important feature of the selected solutions is that, although they do not always reflect perfect results, they are still valuable to be shared. Challenges, limitations and lessons learnt are an important part of adaptation knowledge. Understanding what did not work as expected, and why, can be just as useful as success stories that inspire and inform regions facing similar contexts and considering similar measures.
Do you have an adaptation solution to share?
Has your organisation, city, region or project implemented an adaptation solution that could help others respond to climate risks?
REGILIENCE+ is continuously identifying practical experiences that can be transformed into solutions and shared with adaptation practitioners across Europe.
If you have a solution that could meet these criteria, contact us at solutions@regilience.eu and share your experience with REGILIENCE+.