Climate change adaptation mainstreaming through strategic environmental assessments. An in-depth analysis of environmental indicators from spatial plans in Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy)
Massimiliano Granceri Bradaschia, D. Longato, Denis Maragno, Francesco Musco
Abstract
Climate change adaptation, CCA henceforth, is nowadays a shared concern, deeply investigated and advocated by international research and political organisations. However, both CCA implementation and its monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are challenges yet to be properly addressed. From a spatial planning perspective, local plans are the land-use-oriented tools with the highest potential to enhance CCA operativity. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is also acknowledged to be a key instrument to integrate climate change concerns and hence, to monitor and evaluate climate change (CC) risks and CCA efforts. This study addresses two hypotheses, i.e., i) indicators included in SEAs' spatial plans may be used at the service of CCA M&E, ii) the full extent of indicators can be captured by multi-level planning analyses. To this aim, this study provides an in-depth analysis, through a multi-step systematic categorization, of the indicators used within the SEA of regional and municipal plans in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy). This study brings novelty in the SEA research field by bridging the climate risk theoretical principles to the methodological approach for analysing SEAs' indicators, which are classified within the risk function frame. Key insights come from the metrics, the indicators' explicitness for CCA, and the indicators' extent into the climate risk function. Finally, the paper paves the way for further research of CC- and CCA-related indicators in both spatial planning and other public sectors to support CCA mainstreaming through SEAs. • Environmental indicators can capture CCA-related aspects. • Explicit CCA-related indicators in SEA's local plans are still limited. • Bottom-up local demand for CCA mainstreaming is an important driver. • Full extent of CCA indicators can be captured by multi-level planning analyses. • SEA's M&E schemes from sectoral plans and programmes are yet to be explored.