European patterns of local adaptation planning—a regional analysis

While European regions face a range of different climate hazards, little is known about how these differences affect local climate adaptation planning. We present an analytical framework for evaluating local climate adaptation plans (LCAPs) and apply it to 327 cities in 28 countries across different European regions. To do this, we use statistical methods to identify regional clusters based on overall plan quality, impacts, vulnerable population groups, and sectors addressed by LCAPs. By comparing both geographic and statistical clusters, we found (1) significant spatial heterogeneity across European cities but (2) higher average plan quality scores and more consistent strategies across cities in Central and Eastern Europe. Notably, we found no regional differences regarding (a) the climate impacts and vulnerable communities identified in plans: (b) the most commonly addressed impacts, which were urban temperature and changing precipitation patterns; and (c) the residents that cities identified as most vulnerable, namely older people, women, infants, and the sick. Our study provides a spatial analysis of European LCAPs to uncover regional policy perspectives on local climate adaptation issues. Such approaches can effectively inform broader EU, national and regional strategies that aim to support local adaptation planning in a context of multi-level governance. © The Author(s) 2024.

Open access funding provided by Budapest University of Technology and Economics. AB\u2019s and MSZCS\u2019s research was funded by the Sustainable Development and Technologies National Programme of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (FFT NP FTA). The work of MS and FP was supported by the National Biodiversity Future Centre 2022\u20132025 (id. code CN000033), funded by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.4). MO is funded by Mar\u00EDa de Maeztu Excellence Unit 2023-2027 Ref. CEX2021-001201-M, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033; and by the Basque Government through the BERC 2022-2025 program. DR\u2019s work is funded by the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101019707 (2021\u20132024) (RiskPACC project), No. 101036458 (2021\u20132025) (LOCALISED project), and a JPI Urban Europe Grant, funded by NWO grant agreement No. 438.21.445 (2022\u20132025) (COOLSCHOOLS project).