Integration of climate change adaptation into the work of local authorities

General Information

Climate change adaptation (CCA) is a demanding challenge for small to medium-sized municipalities, because these are typically restricted in (i) knowledge on climate change (CC), (ii) identifying specific threats at the local level, and (iii) personnel and financial capacities to additionally integrate CCA into their administrative practice and implement necessary measures. Nevertheless, in many European countries the responsibility for building, maintaining and adapting local infrastructure is with the municipalities, either at city level or at the level of regional planning authorities. LOCAL ADAPT strives towards meeting these needs. In order to improve the resilience of European municipalities and regions to adverse negative impacts of CC such as heavy rain, heat and drought, four key objectives were identified:
1. Implementation of specific climate change adaptation measures in cooperation with municipalities
2. Integration of climate change adaptation into the administrative practice of local authorities
3. Enhancing the knowledge of municipalities on climate change adaptation
4. Improving the data and information base on climate change impacts
Each key objective is backend with a set of tailored actions and sub-actions and a sound time-line.
Result indicators were thoroughly defined for each sub-action in order to measure the project´s progress towards these objectives. Six project partners from four central Europe member states (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Latvia) will bring in their valuable experience and proficiency into LOCAL ADAPT.
The Climate Service Center Germany contributes to this project by providing local climate information for the specific case study sites, by ensuring transferability of concepts and methods, and setting up the communication strategy.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	Environment and Climate Action (LIFE)
Project Type	LIFE/CLIMATE project
Contract Number	LIFE15 CCA/DE/000133
Co-ordinator	Technische Universität Dresden (DE)

Funding for the Project (€)	Funding for Hereon (€)
1,841,581	162,457

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Jörg Cortekar, Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Phone: +49 40 22633 8445 E-mail contact

Participants

Amt der Steiermärkischen Landesregierung (AT), Sächsisches Landesamt für Umwelt, Landwirtschaft und Geologie (DE), Technische Universität Dresden (DE), Ustav vyzkumu globalni zmeny AV CR (Czech Globe) (CZ), Valka Municipality Council (LV)

Last Update: 16. April 2021