Adaptation to Climate Change: Policy instruments for adaptation to climate change in big European cities and metropolitan areas

Local and regional authorities must be recognised as key actors in the adaptation process. In order to maximise the effectiveness of action at local and regional level and to ensure a consistent level of adaptation across Europe, it is essential that adaptation should be facilitated by sharing of good practice, information dissemination and assistance to cities and metropolitan areas with tools and data. Against the background, this study evaluates existing best practices based on empirical research of twenty European cities to provide guidance to local and regional administrators and interested stakeholders. Chapter 1 presents the findings of the literature review on the issue of climate change adaptation in cities. Chapter 2 describes the case study methodology in more detail. Chapter 3 presents the findings related to overall adaptation strategy development (Phase 1). The chapter includes detailed description and analysis of the twenty case studies in the form of case study sheets. In Chapter 4, the findings related to individual adaptation measures are presented (Phase 2). Chapter 5 concludes with a series of recommendations for both strategy development and the design and implementation of individual adaptation measures.