EU project explores ways to strengthen climate resilience in Central Europe

The EU-funded Climate_CRICES project aims to improve the resilience of regions in Central Europe to the impacts of climate change. The kick-off meeting of the European project partners took place in Venice at the end of September to discuss the joint strategy and the next steps. By providing harmonised climate data and developing adaptation strategies, the project supports authorities and municipalities in effectively implementing climate adaptation measures. Six pilot regions in Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia as well as in the tri-border region between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic are being closely monitored.

Group photo of the project team during the kick-off meeting in Venice. — The project team met in Venice at the end of September to kick off the project. (Photo: CDDA Communication)

In times of increasingly extreme weather events, regional adaptation to climate change is becoming more and more important. In this light, the Climate_CRICES project (Increasing Climate Change Resilience in Central Europe) was launched. It is funded by the European Union as part of the Interreg Central Europe programme. The aim of the project is to support municipalities, authorities and other regional stakeholders in Central Europe in climate change adaptation and strengthening their resilience to the negative impacts of climate change.

According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), regions in Central Europe will experience more heat (waves), droughts and flooding in the future, as well as considerable negative impacts on biodiversity. This poses considerable risks for cities and municipalities, companies and the population. In order to meet these challenges, a wide range of environmental and climate data is required. This data is often already available from public authorities or accessible via open access.

To harness the data for regional climate change adaptation, Climate_CRICES is developing a digital tool (dashboard) that provides regional authorities with easy access to it. The data will not only be available extensively and across borders, but will also be harmonised and visualised for better usability. The data should help to forecast future developments and better plan adaptation measures. In parallel, the project partners are establishing a strategy defining the added value of the harmonised and visualised data to help improve the knowledge and capability of regional authorities for climate change forecasts.

Pilot activities in six pilot regions are being used to test how well the dashboard service can support more targeted adaptation to the consequences of climate change. These activities aimed at increasing resilience to climate change are planned in the regions of Veneto and Piedmont (Italy), Burgenland (Austria), Zagreb (Croatia), the Central Danube (Hungary) and the tri-border region of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) is leading the project’s work package, which will highlight the added value of harmonised and visualised data and demonstrate its importance for projecting the effects of climate change. Part of this is the development of the Climate_CRICES strategy and the implementation of the dashboard. In addition, the IOER is working closely with the Polish and Czech partners to coordinate the pilot activities for cross-border climate adaptation in the tri-border pilot region.

The aim of Climate_CRICES is not only to develop short-term adaptation measures, but also to provide the public stakeholders with a long-term tool that will support them in climate adaptation beyond the end of the project. The project thus contributes significantly to increasing the resilience of cities and municipalities to climate change and promoting cross-border cooperation.

More information on the project website

Scientific contact at the IOER
Dr. Marco Neubert, e-mail: m.neubertioer@ioer.de
Maralda Drosky, e-mail: m.droskyioer@ioer.de

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