Short Term Adaptation for Long Term Resilience to Climate Change | 2 Mers Seas Zeeën

STAR2Cs

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Short Term Adaptation for Long Term Resilience to Climate Change

Priority Axis

Adaptation to Climate Change

Specific objective

Adaptation to Climate Change

Lead partner

Kent County Council - KCC

Begindatum

01/09/2017

Einddatum

31/08/2021

Project budget

4 380 191

ERDF amount

2 628 115

ERDF rate

60%

    Over

    Common challenge

    With climate change, flooding is likely to become more frequent and severe, with damages in Europe reaching €23.5bn by 2050. Given that floods are already very costly to the 2 Seas area, STAR2Cs identified a clear need to take proactive action to reduce the impact of future flooding on ecosystems, communities, and economies. Member States have developed national adaptation strategies identifying such action. However, local authorities and regional agencies tasked with implementing them were finding it challenging to deliver tangible adaptation measures. This difficulty was driven by a systemic failure to engage local stakeholders responsible for planning and decision making with adaptation due to several barriers, including; lack of understanding of long-term costs/benefits, relevant tools and capabilities to support decision making and funding for perceived ‘future’ investments. Thus, there was little appetite or ability to deliver local adaptation, creating an ‘implementation gap’ between strategy and real change.

    Main Achievements

    STAR2Cs aimed to address the implementation gap faced by stakeholders in delivering local action to build adaptation capacity. The project produced 1 e-tool to identify and evaluate mechanisms to deliver adaptation in local scenarios, 1 knowledge and capacity building service increasing stakeholder ability for 'future proofed' decision making, 8 implementation pathways and one case study method evaluating project success.

    The development and uptake of the Adaptation Catalyst is a highlight of STAR2Cs. The e-tool provides an infrastructure for stakeholders to identify and evaluate options to stimulate the implementation of necessary measures. The e-tool webpage has been viewed over 3000 times, promoted, and used widely amongst partners. It has been endorsed within the Deltares staff training programme, highlighting its wide applicability. Through the e-tool, STAR2Cs aimed to achieve a 30% increase in adaptation actions that are timed, costed, and integrated into local delivery mechanisms. Through the use of the e-tool, the project has achieved a 34% increase in the percentage of timed and costed actions integrated into local plans from national plans.

    Partners collaborated to develop and use the Knowledge Service to upskill target groups to use co-creative decision-making to determine relevant adaptation measures. The partnership ran 109 workshops engaging over 3000 stakeholders. In addition, the partnership delivered 9 sets of online training with accompanying participation material. The flood risk web platform for residents in the Zwalm Valley to test and check their flood risk and exchange ideas was visited 901 times alone in 2021.

    The partnership engaged over 4000 stakeholders to develop and deliver 8 locally tailored implementation pathways. Through engagement, stakeholders have been provided with locally tailored pathways for implementing action, thus improving adaptation capacity. Delivery of the pathways has resulted in a 24% increase in the percentage of adaptation actions in local plans that are being delivered, demonstrating the progress made by STAR2Cs in delivering local implementation of ‘on-the-ground’ measures across the 2 Seas area.

    The project culminated in the delivery of the Case Study method evaluating success and the final conference held in June 2021. The partnership worked together to deliver an excellent event that was well attended by stakeholders. The partnership showcased the diverse range of transferable outputs delivered and received great feedback.

     

    Testimonial

    Crucially, we demonstrated that the potential of technical solutions to build adaptive capacity is maximised through effective social engagement and gaining support from policymakers and communities alike. This is something that would have been far more challenging to demonstrate without the breadth and range of expertise, approaches and experiences of the partnership. The co-creation process for developing the river contract in East Flanders, PP5’s iterative process of designing and implementing climate dialogues and preserving and harnessing collective memory of floods in France and the Netherlands to encourage action today are great examples of this. The project’s enriching experiences of knowledge exchange, discussion forums and organising cross-border action resulted in a transferable, multi-functional STAR2Cs solution that will continue to stay relevant long after the project ends.

    Partnership

    Partners

    De Vlaamse Waterweg nv

    Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen

    Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij (VMM)

    Waterwegen en Zeekanaal nv

    Agence d’Urbanisme et de Développement des Vallées de l’Oise – Oise-les-Vallées (OLV)

    Gemeente Capelle aan den Ijssel

    Gemeente Schouwen-Duiveland

    Hoogheemraadschap Holland Noorderkwartier

    Outputs

    Output title
    Type
    Target
    URL / Download
    31/07/2021

    STAR2Cs

    Thema: Climate changeInnovation in cities

    Implementation Pathways: timed and costed short to medium term plans that establish incremental and integrated actions to increase adaptation capacity

    Type: Strategy/action plan
    Target: Water management organisations
    30/06/2021

    STAR2Cs

    Thema: Climate changeInnovation in cities

    Case-study method: evaluates 'proof-of-concept' to demonstrate success of catalyst, service & pathways to overcome implementation gap and reduce costs

    Type: Feasibility study
    Target: Local, regional and national authorities
    01/04/2019

    STAR2Cs

    Thema: Climate changeInnovation in cities

    Adaptation Catalyst: decision-making e-tool for evaluating implementation mechanisms using local data, cost/benefit analysis and climate scenarios

    Type: e-infrastructure/online tool
    Target: Local, regional and national authorities
    01/03/2019

    STAR2Cs

    Thema: Climate changeInnovation in cities

    Knowledge and capability building service: to increase stakeholder engagement and ability to implement adaptation through co-creative decision making

    Type: e-infrastructure/online tool
    Target: Water management organisations