UrbanAdapt

UrbanAdapt – Development of urban adaptation strategies using ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation

UrbanAdapt project aims to respond to the potential impacts of climate change in cities, initiate and progress the process of preparing urban adaptation strategies, and propose and evaluate suitable adaptation measures in select cities in the Czech Republic (Prague, Brno, Pilsen) with the support of ecosystem-based approaches. The intermediate goals of the project include performing a climate change risk and vulnerability assessment at the local urban level, working with stakeholders to identify relevant adaptation measures, quantifying the costs and benefits of the preferred measures, preparing and formulating adaptation strategies for the cities in connection with the National Adaptation Strategy “Strategies for Climate Change Adaptation in the Czech Republic” currently under preparation, and initiating the process of implementing the adaptation strategy and associated measures. An important component of the UrbanAdapt project is the incorporation of “green and blue infrastructure” elements and ecosystem services into the adaptation cycle, individual adaptation measures and adaptation alternatives. The EU strategy on adaptation to climate change (2013) supports ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation as cost-effective solutions that are easily accessible and provide a wide range of benefits such as flood risk reduction, reduction of soil erosion, improved water and air quality, and a decrease in the urban heat island effect.

The UrbanAdapt project (EHP-CZ02-OV-1-036-2015) is supported by grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The project implementation period was  January 2015 – January 2016.

Project partners are the Global Change Research Institute AS CR; Institute for Sustainability Studies, University of Iceland; Urban Planning and Development Institute of the City of Pilsen; Prague Institute of Planning and Development; CI2, o.p.s.; Czech Technical University in Prague – Faculty of Transportation Sciences; Environmental Partnership Foundation; and Jana Evangelisty Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem – Faculty of Social and Economic Studies.