Approaches to climate change adaptation in rural regions across Europe – Transnational workshop series

For more than three years, climate adaptation in rural areas has been promoted within the framework of the EU-LIFE project Evolving Regions. In seven regions of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, integrated and collaborative climate adaptation processes based on innovative methods have been carried out, enabling regional actors to actively address the challenges posed by climate change.
We share our experiences and invite practitioners from regional and local climate adaptation as well as actors from science to discuss different aspects of climate adaptation with us in three online workshops. You will get to know different approaches from European countries, you will be able to network and you will be able to look at cooperation in municipalities and regions, the role of climate data in dialogue processes as well as process formats of climate adaptation in comparison

workshops

Workshop 1: Effective solutions for multilevel cooperation of local and regional authorities

Date: 30.03.2023

9:00 am – 12:00 pm (CEST)

The effects of climate change are not only evident in large cities and metropolises; rural areas are also affected by the consequences of the changing climate. However, many smaller municipalities do not have the necessary financial and human resources to actively address the climate change-related challenges. At the same time, climate change impacts do not stop at administrative borders. Cross-border cooperation and the support or coordination of adaptation efforts at the regional level are possible solutions. In Germany, for example, at the level of the districts to which the respective municipalities belong. This approach was also followed in the Evolving Regions project.

Join us to discuss how successful inter-municipal cooperation at different levels can advance climate adaptation at the local and regional level and learn about best-practice examples and solutions from Europe.

The agenda of the first workshop can be downloaded here:

Workshop 2: Data for climate adaptation: Processing for the applicability in dialogue processes and the use in practice

Date: 25.04.2023

9:00 am – 12:00 pm (CEST)

Data and modelling play an important role in climate change adaptation. Only those who know where particularly impacted areas are located or how the local climate will develop in the future can implement targeted measures. However, knowledge about climate change impacts and the associated data alone are not sufficient as a basis for municipal decision-making and action. The data must be able to be understood, interpreted and analysed by relevant groups of actors. Get to know the climate impact analysis from the Evolving Regions project and other approaches for visualising climate change impacts and discuss with us what added value such data offer for targeted climate adaptation and how corresponding information can be prepared in a targeted manner.

Workshop 3: Comparison of integrated process formats for climate adaptation – practical experiences

Date: 01.06.2023

9:00 am – 11:00 am (CEST)

The EU Adaptation Strategy calls for a more systemic climate adaptation at local and regional level in order to develop smart and quickly implementable measures for the challenges posed by climate change. However, small and medium-sized municipalities in particular have rarely developed their own adaptation strategy and often the pressure to act only arises when events of damage have already occurred locally. In order to move from a reactive to a preventive and sustainable action strategy, it is particularly useful to involve the relevant actors from the very beginning and to use participatory and integrated methods to develop strategies and measures.

Join us to discuss how the integration of relevant climate adaptation actors can be successful and what added value participatory methods offer for climate adaptation in rural areas. Get to know the approach of Evolving Roadmapping as well as other best-practice examples and exchange ideas with us.