DEcision support SYstem for Coastal climate change impact assessment - DESYCO

DESYCO is a DSS for the assessment and management of multiple climate change impacts on coastal areas and related ecosystems (e.g. beaches, wetlands, forests, protected areas, groundwater, urban and agricultural areas). It adopts an ecosystem approach and implements a Regional Risk Assessment (RRA) methodology, based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), in order to identify and prioritize areas and targets at risk in the considered region. DESYCO includes the analysis of different climate change related stressors (e.g. sea level rise, storm surges, waves, water temperature and salinity) and affected resources (e.g. water, soil, biodiversity) in order to assist coastal communities in planning adaptation measures. DESYCO is integrated with a GIS and implements GIS functionalities based on open source libraries. The GIS in particular allows a quick visualisation and comparison of the assessment for different segments of the area of interest, and supports the prioritisation of coastal targets for planning of adaptation measures. DESYCO was developed and tested for the coastal areas of the Northern Adriatic Sea and of the Gulf of Gabès. Its applicability to other contexts is under evaluation at the Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC) through other on-going projects (e.g. TRUST and SALT Life+ projects, aiming to assess and manage climate change impacts on two Italian groundwater systems. DESYCO can in principle be upscaled at the European and Regional Sea scale.