Climate Change Adaptation and Regional Planning: The Liguria Region Case

Local adaptation strategies and plans are essential tools to tackle the ongoing impact generated by climate change and increase the adaptive capacity of local communities to possible future climate-related challenges. Fondazione CIMA has teamed up with other research institutions, with wide expertise on natural risks and climate change policies, to support the Liguria Region in the development of its adaptation strategy. In this paper, we present the methodology applied, focusing on three key milestones: (i) the identification of climate change tendencies and expected scenarios; (ii) the application of the “impact chains” methodology (“Conceptual models describing climate impacts as cause-effects relationships within socio-ecological system”—Zebisch et al., 2021”) with the aim to engage local stakeholders in the identification of context specific climate-related risks and adaptation objectives; (iii) the definition of matrixes connecting risks, adaptation objectives and measures for every regional sector affected by climate change. Each step of our approach has been characterised by the integration between quantitative data coming from the climate and impact modelling activities and qualitative knowledge coming from the engagement of local stakeholders, with the aim to reduce the inevitable uncertainty connected to climate forecasts and increase the tailoring of adaptation goals and solutions to the local needs and development priorities. In this paper, we outline the key elements of our approach, pinpointing strengths and weaknesses and the most relevant lessons learnt.