Regulatory Tools for Adaptation to “Glocal” Climate Change

This chapter frames the policy context of urban adaptation to climate change. The different geographical scales of adaptation and the related adaptation planning tools are discussed, from strategies to plans. It presents the first European strategy for climate change adaptation, highlights the shortcomings of the new one and tracks the adoption of regulatory tools at the national level across European countries. The Chapter explores the local scale of urban adaptation. A preliminary review of studies on Local Adaptation Plans analysis and assessment, among the most relevant and cited in the available literature, allows to identify and evaluate diverse methodologies adopted by different authors, various documents selection criteria and multiple classification criteria. These are applied in the tracking of climate adaptation plans and adaptation measures adopted by cities. Finally, it provides the interpretation of the results of a systematic comparative analysis of three Local Adaptation Plans (LAPs), selected among the most up to date and recognized as best practices in Europe. The integration of soft measures into LAPs is the focus of this investigation phase.