Methodology for Effective Decision-making on Impacts and Adaptation (MEDIATION)

Until recently, climate change policy in Europe focused on reduction of greenhouse gases. After the turn of the century, decision makers at the international, national, regional and local level in Europe increasingly recognized their own vulnerability to climate change impacts. To reduce this vulnerability in the most cost-effective way, they need scientific and technical information about  climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation options. Currently, the availability of such information in Europe is fragmented and incomplete.

MEDIATION addresses this challenge through six activities:

• analysis of the decision-making context;
• inventory, review and further development of methods and metrics for impacts and vulnerability analysis;
• inventory, review and further development of methods and metrics  for costing of impacts and adaptation options;
• the development of an overarching integrated methodology;
• the development of a flexible, interactive common platform for knowledge sharing, i.e. the MEDIATION Adaptation Platform.
• disseminating this knowledge through a dedicated outreach and training programme.

The MEDIATION Adaptation Platform helps to specify the tasks that have to be performed to address climate hazards effectively. It provides access to a Toolbox with methods and tools that are suitable to inform decision-making, dependent on the situation. It does this through the MEDIATION Adaptation Pathfinder. The decision trees in this Task Navigator have been derived from a number of diverse case studies in different parts of Europe.