Developing Policies & Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region (ASTRA)

The main objective is to assess regional impacts of the ongoing global change in climate and to develop strategies and policies for climate change adaptation. The ASTRA project uses climate change models and climate impact research studies to develop regional and local impact scenarios. In the development of adaptation strategies it concentrates on risk awareness and the formulation of policy recommendations. The project focuses on practical applications, and several stakeholders are directly involved in all project activities. ASTRA's partners comprise various research institutes and regional planning offices around the Baltic Sea Region, in total 19 inner and 16 outer circle partners. The ASTRA project is a follow up of the INTERREG IIIB project "Sea level change affecting the spatial development of the Baltic Sea Region" (SEAREG), which operated from 2002 to 2005. Meanwhile the SEAREG project focused only on sea level changes and related flooding problems, ASTRA has a wider scope. Main findings of the project, information and recommendations on how to develop adequate adaptation strategies to deal with climate change can be found in the guidance for decision-makers: Towards Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in the Baltic Sea Region.