Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Approach and Adaptation Planning Support Tools: Potential Implementation for the Urban Context

Climate Change (CC) is having a progressively negative impact on natural resources management. It, indeed, worsens existing environmental challenges, placing socio-ecological systems in a situation of new risks. This process invites to reflect about the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) approach, which combines concepts of sustainable land use and conservation in one integrated adaptation strategy. Challenges related to definition and integration of the EbA process into urban context exist, in particular concerning the necessity of a systemic methodology deployment in urban planning instruments and adaptation processes. As a possible entry point, this work aims to identify the adaptation planning support tools for building an EbA process at city scale, defining a possible methodology for tracing a shortlist of tools supporting EbA principles. The outcomes have demonstrated that tools, albeit not having exhaustive capacities, provide important directions for theoretical investigation and consequent actions. There is a need for tools explicitly addressed to the EbA approach, not still homogeneously supported in the various stages of the adaptation framework. Hence, they offer useful insights to establish a comprehensive adaptation process able to integrate EbA in urban planning practices. To date, this represents one of the triggering points for the implementation of an operational Nature-based Solution (NbS) framework.