Andrea Prutsch, Environment Agency Austria 1

Adaptation support: linking science, stakeholder

knowledge and results from practical testing

Project team: Reinhard Steurer, Christoph Clar, Astrid Felderer, Maria Balas, Martin König

Overview

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Background

Objectives

Adaptation support: Developing a handbook for adaptation in Austria

(focusing on provinces, regions and cities)

What worked and what didn`t

Next steps

Background

© iStockphoto.com/clintspencer

Objectives

Adaptation support:

Developing a handbook

for adaptation in Austria

What worked and what

didn`t

Next steps

Background

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Austria`s adaptation strategy plus an integrated action plan will (hopefully)

be adopted in autumn 2012

NAS/NAP includes also recommendations for adaptation to be taken at

provincial, regional and local level

BUT most provinces, regions and cities have not started with

adaptation yet

Some decision support tools (e.g. in the format of guidelines) for

adaptation policy making, mostly at national level, and for certain sectors

are available and could give some direction

BUT they do not address Austrian particularities regarding the

diverse geographical setting, the federal political system and

respective multi-level governance considerations, etc.

Objectives

Adaptation support:

Developing a handbook

for adaptation in Austria

What worked and what

didn`t

Next steps

Objectives

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develop an tailor-made adaptation handbook based on

scientific knowledge and in cooperation with potential users (=

policy makers and decision makers working at provincial, regional

or city level)

apply and test handbook in two case studies, reflecting the

scales we are aiming at: (i) a province (Upper Austria) and (ii) a

region (Waldviertel)

improve handbook based on the lessons learnt from testing

= facilitate the adaptation process to climate change

in Austrian provinces, regions and cities

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Funding: Climate- and Energyfunds, 2nd Call of the Austrian Climate

Research Programme

Duration: February 2011 – July 2013 (30 months)

Consortium: Lead: Environment Agency Austria

Partner: InFER at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences/BOKU, Vienna

Involved stakeholders: Upper Austria & region in Lower Austria (case regions),

plus: Province of Styria, Carinthia and Lower Austria, Austrian

Association of Cities and Towns, Klimabündnis

Advisory board: Julian Wright (EPA UK), Petra Mahrenholz (EPA DE),

Sybille Bauriedl (Uni Kassel), Louise Grøndahl (EPA DK),

Marc Zebisch (EURAC Bozen)

FAMOUS: Factory for Adaptation Measures Operated by

Users at different Scales

Adaptation support

What worked and what

didn`t

Next steps

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WP1:

1. Analyse of 49 peer-reviewed articles on

barriers in adaptation policy making

Classification of 16 barriers according the

policy cycle

2. Screening of 32 guidelines for adaptation

policy making Findings on how barriers

are addressed and what they suggest to

overcome

Core:

Involvement of potential users in the development process (via 5 workshops, written consultation process)

WP2:

1. Select two sectors and assess how they deal with climate change adaptation within their responsibilities Tourism in Upper Austria and flood protection in the Waldviertel region

2. Assess case studies based on literature review and interviews Results on current state of play in these two sectors and better understanding on multi-level governance in Austria

Handbook on

adaptation

Existing work in this field

Input from advisory board

Handbook on adaptation

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3 toolkits will address the steps of the policy cycle:

(i) The “Create the ground for adaptation” toolkit aims to support the agenda setting stage of policy making

(ii) The “Identify problems and find solutions” toolkit is concerned with priorisation of main impacts, selection of adaptation options, mainstreaming, preparing a strategy document, etc.

(ii) The “Implement actions and evaluate provides support in monitoring/evaluation, suggests communication formats, etc.

1.Create the ground

for adaptation

2. Identify problems

and find solutions

3. Implement

actions and

evaluate

Toolkit 1:

“Create the ground

for adaptation”

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What is important?

Box with methods and tools

(reference to annex)

Self-check

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Create the ground for adaptation

Identify problems and find solutions

Implement actions and evaluate

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Arguments for adaptation

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How to set up a core team for adaptation?

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and other fact sheets … e.g. on social issues, global

dimension of climate change, …

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„Responsibility maps“

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Descriptions of stakeholder involvement

formats

Method for stakeholder

selection and analyses

What worked and what didn`t

Next steps

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Involve end users/target groups in the

development process!!!

Build on existing evidence base from a wide

range of disciplines, expertise and practical

experiences from others, but adjust it based on

your users needs and particular situations

Provide support for stakeholders with different

levels of experiences

Give positive examples and good practice

Establish clear link to real policy process and

existing structures, activities, etc.

…

What worked = To do`s

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We aimed to follow a pragmatic approach, but have now a document of

more than 200 pages on the table nevertheless, support for

implementing and monitoring and evaluation is limited

Usability of handbook cannot be assessed at this stage as it has not been

tested yet, but regions in Austria might find it less helpful (as they have

no political mandate, are less institutionalized, etc.) nevertheless,

adaptation in some sectors might be especially challenging on regional

level, e.g. water supply

We could not support adaptation advice to overcome all barriers in

adaptation policy making as identified from the literature

What did not work

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What did not work

Target group of handbook will most likely need additional support for

using the tools adequately (e.g. trainings) which we have not foreseen

One adaptation handbook for Austrian provinces, regions and cities

cannot take particularities at municipality level into account

New project proposal that aims to provide

tailored support for Austrian communities + trainings

Next steps

Copyright: http://little-bitsofjoy.blogspot.com

Testing the handbook

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Waldviertel (Lower Austria)

Province of Upper Austria

Next steps:

Plan implementation

process together with

contact persons from

test regions

Develop criteria-based

monitoring scheme to

secure lessons learnt

Carry out adaptation

process in test regions

(Kick off in October

2012/January 2013)

(Expected) Results

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Scientific publication on barriers and guidelines (WP1)

Scientific publication on Multi-Level-Governance in climate change

adaptation in Austria (WP2)

First version of handbook as basis for the testing in case studies (WP3)

Final Toolkits-Booklets will be made available on the internet in

summer 2013 www.klimawandelanpassung.at (WP5)

Final conference to share project findings (WP7)

Contact

Andrea Prutsch

+431 – 313 04 – 3462

andrea.prutsch@umweltbundesamt.at

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Conference on Climate Change Adaptation ■

Helsinki, 29 August 2012

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