The Project

The overall aim of the LIFE UrbanProof project is to increase the resilience of municipalities to climate change equipping them with a powerful tool for supporting better informed decision making on climate change adaptation planning. In the framework of this project, selected regional climate models and statistical downscaling techniques will be used for the assessment of climate change in the future at regional and local level. In addition, the existing and future vulnerabilities and available adaptation measures to climate change will be identified and evaluated.

Following, an online decision support tool for adaptation planning will be developed where the above-mentioned information will be presented in a user-friendly, graphical layout. The tool will be applied at the four participating municipalities, where a number of small-scale green and soft adaptation measures will also be implemented based on the results of the tool. Finally, local adaptation strategies for each of the municipalities will be developed.

The methodology of the LIFE UrbanProof project is also depicted in the following figure:

  • Recording of the existing situation in the partner municipalities
  • Simulation of current climate and projection of future changes in climate
  • Climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment
  • Development and demonstration of the UrbanProof toolkit, for supporting better informed decision-making
  • Implementation of selected green and soft adaptation measures at the partner municipalities
  • Development of local climate change adaptation strategies for the partner municipalities

UrbanProof toolkit: a web-based decision support toolkit for adaptation planning

The UrbanProof toolkit will consist of five interdependent modules/stages which, altogether constitute the adaptation process:

Stage 1: Climate change
Interactive map for exploring the current climate and the projected climate change in the study area

Stage 2: Vulnerability assessment
Exploring the vulnerability of the area of interest at each of the identified climate change impacts

Stage 3: Assessment of adaptation measures
The Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) module of the toolkit. In stage 3, the adaptation options for addressing a certain climate change impact as well as the evaluation of their performance will be presented. Additionally, local stakeholders will be able to provide their own evaluation to the adaptation options.

Stage 4: Development of the adaptation strategy
The tool will provide the possibility to local authorities to download a report with the adaptation options which attained the highest scoring during the MCA state and build their adaptation strategy

Stage 5: Monitoring and review
The user will be able to monitor and review the adaptation progress at a later period, by going back to each stage of the adaptation process to check whether the information provided has changed

The UrbanProof tool modules/stages as well as the information layers that will be accessible to the user are presented in the following picture:

 

In specific, the UrbanProof Toolkit will:

  • provide insight into the expected changes in climate,
  • enhance understanding on climate change impacts and on the mechanisms defining vulnerability,
  • enable the exploration and evaluation of the available adaptation options and,
  • provide guidance for monitoring the adaptation process.