02 December 2015

European Environment Agency (EEA)/European Topic Centre on Climate Change, Impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation (ETC/CCA)

Background paper for the second webinar on Climate-ADAPT development – Selection of information from EU funded research

Wednesday 16th of December 2015, 11:30 to 13:00 CET

1. Introduction and purpose of the webinar

The European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate-ADAPT)1, has been designed to offer easy access to information on adaptation in Europe. The platform aims to facilitate the collection, sharing and use of this information in order to build a robust and up-to-date knowledge base. This knowledge base can then assist the uptake of the relevant knowledge by decision makers, and contribute to a greater level of coordination of activities between sectors and institutional levels. Contributions to the database and “research projects” pages from European research projects are one of the ways of expanding the Climate-ADAPT knowledge base, considered as a complementary source to national adaptation portals and information systems that cover national research.

This is a background paper to support the second webinar on the development of the Climate-ADAPT platform. The invitation and the agenda for the meeting are provided in a separate document. The webinar will focus on how best to work with ‘providers’, mainly from EU funded research projects, other EU projects, and international organisations.

DG CLIMA and EEA are interested in feedback from research funding organisations, researchers, NRC’s and international organisations on proposals for a user-friendly presentation and efficient selection of the results of EU funded research activities. This should also cover options for collaboration that can be specified in subsequent webinars and follow-up meetings.Why should you join the webinar?

To provide your views on how the Climate-ADAPT database presents the knowledge resources developed by research projects (publications, tools, web platforms)

To provide your views on the criteria for selecting projects presented on separate “research projects” pages in more detail

To clarify the ‘added value’ for researchers of having a presence on Climate-ADAPT To discuss how we can more actively engage the research community to submit content.

1 http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/

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EEA/DG CLIMA has had many interactions with users and providers on the development of Climate-ADAPT since its launch in 20122. However, there was a need for a more regular exchange of information and views. So the EEA, in collaboration with DG CLIMA, decided to organise two webinars during 2015. The webinars are additional activities to the existing interactions with users, in particular the annual EIONET workshops (e .g. 15th-16th June 2015, EEA, Copenhagen) and conferences such as the second European Climate Change Adaptation conference (ECCA 2015, Copenhagen, 12th-14th May 2015). In the webinars, we are requesting discussion and feedback on the sites’ content and functionality. This is intended to increase the transparency of the platform development and engage users and providers in this process.

The first Climate-ADAPT webinar held in April 2015 focused on the state and plans for the further development of Climate-ADAPT and how countries could develop case studies. The presentations and a summary of the questions and answers of the webinar are provided in a follow-up document3. The specific topic of the second webinar is to clarify how research information is selected for the site, so that providers can contribute appropriate information from their projects to Climate-ADAPT. Furthermore, feedback will be requested from users if the selection of content for Climate-ADAPT based on the systematic criteria-based approach meets their needs.

2. Main principles for the selection of information for Climate-ADAPT

Based on the vision of Climate-ADAPT described in the Climate-ADAPT work plan (2014 to 2018) a number of main principles have been identified as a guidance for the maintenance and further development of the platform:

Relevance: Climate-ADAPT should facilitate access to the most relevant sources of adaptation- information in the EU. The information is generated by governmental organisations (ministries and public agencies), research institutes by means of research projects and/or programs, and by practitioners (cities, sectoral organisations).

Reliability: Climate-ADAPT aims to be a portal of containing reliable information and tools, with defined minimum quality standards for the metadata provided for the description and filtering of the information presented and to seek for common approaches at EU level. Climate-ADAPT allows interested stakeholders in climate change adaptation policies and knowledge to provide information. Providers of information are expected to follow their own quality assurance processes, including e. g. peer review procedures. The Climate-ADAPT team checks whether the criteria for the selection of content as well as the procedures and criteria for metadata submission have been followed.

2 http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/nrc-climate-change-adaptation/library/workshops-meetings/climate-adapt-development-webinars/first-webinar-27-april-2015/webinar-documents/background-paper-climate-adapt-development 3 http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/nrc-climate-change-adaptation/library/workshops-meetings/climate-adapt-development-webinars/first-webinar-27-april-2015/webinar-documents/webinar-documentation/climate-adapt-webinar-27-april-follow-final

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Complementarity: Climate-ADAPT should provide information on adaptation resources that are relevant at EU level, and should be complementary to the content of national, transnational and other thematic adaptation knowledge platforms in the EU.

Timeliness: Climate-ADAPT should facilitate access to the most up to date sources of adaptation-relevant information in the EU.

Accessibility: Climate-ADAPT should facilitate a straightforward access to the most relevant sources of adaptation-relevant information in the EU. The platform should not be a repository of data and information, but an entry point to multiple sources of information. The information is collected and presented in a structured way, including presenting metadata for each item in a database.

Transparent and responsive development: Climate-ADAPT is a long-term knowledge infrastructure, to be further developed step by step, responsive to the users´ needs and priorities and according to the available resources. These will be identified in accordance with the EU Adaptation Strategy’s aims, and in consultation with key stakeholders identified in its governance structure.

EEA together with the European Topic Center on Climate Change impacts, vulnerability and Adaptation (ETC/CCA) aims to strike a balance between the different principles when updating Climate-ADAPT. We do this by selecting information that is most relevant for decision-makers, most up-to-date in terms of scientific knowledge and by taking into account the human and IT resources available including those of the intended users.

4. Content and Structure of Climate-ADAPT

The Climate-ADAPT platform content is divided in two main parts: a) web page content and b) a database (DB).

a) The web page content is organised under four main entry points (Web pages):o Adaptation information –This is where the “Research projects page” is located

and where new research project information will be highlighted;

o EU adaptation policies

o Countries, regions and cities

o Tools.

The individual sections of Climate-ADAPT have different ownerships with direct implications for the scope and timing of the maintenance process. For example, information on the “countries section” is submitted by EEA Member countries based on official reporting towards the Commission under the MMR regulation4 (reporting was due in March 2015) and voluntary updating. Almost all country pages have now been updated following the MMR submissions. The database and the content of the

4 Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 525/2013)

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section with individual research projects are mainly maintained by EEA, supported by the ETC/CCA. An overview of the different sections and further information about each of the web pages is available in Annex I.

b) The database (DB) contains structured and continuously updated information on climate change adaptation of ten different types of resources which is searchable via filter criteria. The information types include: Publications and reports; Information portals; Guidance documents; Tools; Maps, graphs and datasets; Indicators; Research and knowledge projects; Organisations; Adaptation options; Case studies (for details see Annex II).

Please note that the layout of Climate-ADAPT and some functionalities (e. g. the search function) will however change somewhat after ongoing work on functionalities has been finished (by end 2015), and again some changes will occur after moving to a new content management platform (to be finalised in May 2016).

4. Presentation of EU research project information

Sections of Climate-ADAPT that are the most relevant for this webinar are a) the database5 and b) web page content – in particular the “research projects” page6. Both section are being used to present the results of European research to contribute to the sharing of knowledge on adaptation in Europe.

We encourage the research community to provide the relevant knowledge to Climate-ADAPT. There is significant added value for researchers of submitting project information to the ‘research pages’ and research results to the Climate-ADAPT database.

This includes Wider outreach and more visibility – Results can be made available to an audience beyond the

scope of the project website. Climate-ADAPT is used by policy-makers, researchers, international organisations and many others from across Europe and the world.

Greater uptake – Projects results will be accessed and potentially used more frequently as users are prompted to use the information through a series of promotional activities such as presentations at events and the bi-monthly newsletter.

a) Research information in the database

A large number of adaptation related research projects are funded by the European Commission by different programmes such as Horizon 2020, FP7, Interreg and LIFE/LIFE+ etc. Furthermore, research initiatives like Climate-KIC are also providing relevant knowledge. The relevant projects are being

5 http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/data-and-downloads 6 http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/research-projects

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added to the Climate-ADAPT database according to the Climate-ADAPT updating procedures7. The metadata available for “research and knowledge projects” in the database is included in Annex III.

Many countries have developed their own databases with nationally relevant research projects on adaptation. The CIRCLE 2 climate adaptation infobase8 has been collecting and presenting these. Furthermore JPI Climate is aiming to align research, including on adaptation, at national level9. Climate-ADAPT aims to complement these activities by focusing on EU level research projects.EU funded research projects on adaptation are already accessible via the CORDIS database10. The added value of the Climate-ADAPT database is to enable an overview and easy screening via filter criteria and access to the results of all relevant EU funded research and other projects on adaptation (via links to the original project websites).

The Climate-ADAPT database shows the growing knowledge on adaptation in Europe. In February 2015, 1525 items were available online in the Climate-ADAPT database from which 397 (26%) are research and knowledge projects11. Around 44% of the ‘Research and knowledge projects’ included in the Climate-ADAPT database have started in 2009 and 2010 (see figure 1).

Figure 1 – Distribution of ‘Research and knowledge projects’ per start year in the Climate-ADAPT database as of February 2015.

7 Climate-ADAPT Standard Operational Procedures (SOP): http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/nrc-climate-change-adaptation/library/workshops-meetings/climate-adapt-development-webinars/second-webinar-october-2015/webinar-documents/ 8 http://infobase.circle-era.eu/9 http://www.jpi-climate.eu/jpi-themes/themes 10 http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/home_en.html11 Internal ETC/CCA 2015 Working Paper “Climate-ADAPT database coverage analysis” (November 2015)

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88 % of the research and knowledge projects covered in the database are characterised as being at ‘Europe’ scale and 12% as of ‘Global’ scale. Furthermore, these projects cover adaptation in the relevant sectors (see figure 2).

Figure 2 – Distribution of type of data per sector in the Climate-ADAPT database as of February 2015.

Important outputs of adaptation projects have also been added to the database through different item categories (e.g. “Publications and reports”, “Tools” etc.). Due to the diversity of results these cannot be statistically measured in the same way. The metadata available for these outputs are included in Annex IV.

b) Research information in the web content:

In addition to the provision of research projects and their results in the database, the “research projects page” is intended to highlight and present in more depth only the most relevant FP7/Horizon 2020 projects12. Specifically, the purpose of this page is to present a summary of the main EU research projects for decision makers in Europe.The more in-depth information for the most relevant projects highlighted on the research projects page covers the following topics:

The challenge Project objectives Methodology Results (including links to the respective Climate-ADAPT database items) Project partners.

12 http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/research-projects

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It is challenging to select the most ‘relevant’ projects and project results from the large amount and variety of EU funded research projects available or that have recently started. So far, the update of the EU “research projects” page has been carried out on a case-by case basis, for example through the involvement of the EEA in different research projects advisory groups and by participating in stakeholder meetings. Furthermore EEA receives regularly an overview from DG Research and Innovation on recently approved new projects (e.g. Horizon2020). Many research projects contact EEA directly since they have been requested to present results from their projects in Climate-ADAPT. So far, four projects have been presented on these pages (MEDIATION, CLIMSAVE (finalised), ClimateCost and ECONADAPT (ongoing)).

c) More systematic updating

In addition to these activities the EEA, supported by ETC/CCA, has performed a more systematic analysis of EU-funded research projects (LIFE+, FP7 and H2020). In line with the main principles of the Climate-ADAPT updating (see section 3) a set of criteria has been created to guide the systematic and effective selection of the relevant research projects. The selected projects were screened based on the available information in the European Commission’s CORDIS database and in the Copernicus project database13.

The screening had two objectives:

1. Identify projects and their results that are relevant for adaptation but not yet included in the Climate-ADAPT database

2. Identify a small number of “key relevant” projects based on specific criteria for inclusion in Climate-ADAPT through a separate page (“research projects” page).

Regarding the first objective - 231 EU FP 7 projects and 29 H20202 projects in the CORDIS database were screened to see which of these met the criteria for the selection of content for the Climate-ADAPT database (see Annex V). These criteria are relatively broad, leading to include also projects that cover observations and projections and sector specific questions. From the screened projects 31 projects have been identified which should be added to the database whereas 40 of the identified projects were already included in the database. Details of the screening process are available on the Eionet forum14.

These projects also include a range of pre-operational Copernicus projects. EEA will consider which of these projects and their results will be added to the database. In particular regarding pre-operational Copernicus projects EEA will organise a separate discussion with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and with the coordinators of these projects on the best way to include information in Climate-ADAPT. It is intended to create a specific Copernicus Climate Services page in Climate-ADAPT in 2016.

13 http://www.copernicus.eu/project-database 14 http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/nrc-climate-change-adaptation/library/workshops-meetings/climate-adapt-development-webinars/second-webinar-october-2015/webinar-documents/cordis-database-screening-climate-adapt-db-eligible-projects

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Regarding the second objective of the screening an additional analysis of EU research projects focused on the projects that are regarded as most relevant, covering the following three broad topics (‘criteria’):

1. General CCIVA methodologies;2. Costs and benefits of adaptation;3. Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation of Climate Change Adaptation.

231 EU FP 7 projects and 29 H20202 projects in the CORDIS database were screened to see which of these met the above mentioned criteria. Details of the screening process are available on the Eionet forum15. It is important to be aware that the screening on Copernicus pre-operational projects was not complete. This will be improved and discussed in separate meetings, as mentioned above.

An overview of the research projects that met two or more criteria is provided in Table 1. These projects could each be presented on the dedicated Climate-ADAPT “research project” page.

We would like to get feedback from the participants in the webinar representing the user perspective (NRC´s and other) if the criteria and the results of the selection process for the Climate-ADAPT “research projects” page are appropriate.

15 http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/nrc-climate-change-adaptation/library/workshops-meetings/climate-adapt-development-webinars/second-webinar-october-2015/webinar-documents/selected-fp7-h2020-projects-research-projects-page

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TABLE 1: Overview of the research projects that covered two or more topics

Project Funding source Duration (years)

Criterion 1

General CCIVA methodologies (Y/N)

Criterion 2

Costs and benefits of adaptation (Y/N)

Criterion 3

Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation of CC

Adaptation (Y/N)

Already highlighted on the Climate-

ADAPT

“Research projects” page

Climatecost - Full Costs of Climate Change

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 3 Y Y Y X

CONHAZ - Costs of Natural Hazards

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 2 Y Y Y

Climsave - Climate change integrated assessment methodology for cross-sectoral adaptation and vulnerability in Europe

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 3 Y Y Y X

MEDIATION - Methodology for Effective Decision-making on Impacts and Adaptation

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 3 Y Y Y X

IMPACT2C - Quantifying projected impacts under 2°C warming

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 4 Y Y Y

ToPDad - Tool-supported policy-development for regional adaptation

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 3 Y Y Y

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Project Funding source Duration (years)

Criterion 1

General CCIVA methodologies (Y/N)

Criterion 2

Costs and benefits of adaptation (Y/N)

Criterion 3

Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation of CC

Adaptation (Y/N)

Already highlighted on the Climate-

ADAPT

“Research projects” page

BASE - Bottom-up Climate Adaptation Strategies towards a Sustainable Europe

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 4 Y Y Y

RAMSES - Reconciling Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development for Cities

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 5 Y Y Y

RISES – AM - Responses to coastal climate change: Innovative Strategies for high End Scenarios -Adaptation and Mitigation-

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 3 Y Y Y

ECONADAPT - Economics of climate change adaptation in Europe

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 3 Y Y Y X

IMPRESSIONS - Impacts and risks from higher-end scenarios: Strategies for innovative solutions

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 5 Y Y Y

CORFU - Collaborative research on flood

FP7-ENVIRONMENT 4 Y Y Y

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Project Funding source Duration (years)

Criterion 1

General CCIVA methodologies (Y/N)

Criterion 2

Costs and benefits of adaptation (Y/N)

Criterion 3

Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation of CC

Adaptation (Y/N)

Already highlighted on the Climate-

ADAPT

“Research projects” page

resilience in urban areas

ECCONET - Effects of Climate Change On the inland waterway and other transport NETworks

FP7-TRANSPORT 2 Y Y Y

CCTAME Climate Change - Terrestrial Adaption and Mitigation in Europe FP7-ENVIRONMENT

3Y Y Y

RESIN - Climate Resilient Cities and Infrastructures

H2020-DRS-2014 3 Y ?16 Y

TRANSrisc - Transitions pathways and risk analysis for climate change mitigation and adaption strategies

H2020-SC5-2014-two-stage

3 Y ?17 Y

16 Since there is no detailed information available (e.g. from a project website), the evaluation of this criterion can only be done based on the information in the project description included in the CORDIS database.17 Since there is no detailed information available (e.g. from a project website), the evaluation of this criterion can only be done based on the information in the project description included in the CORDIS database.

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5. Next steps regarding submission of content for EU funded research projects

a) Submission of content for the “research projects” page (web content)

EEA together with DG CLIMA intends to present the proposed research projects in more detail (see table 1). EEA intends to contact the respective project coordinators for the submission of the respective metadata.

For these projects we propose that the metadata according to the template (see section 4b) should be submitted online using a folder on the Eionet forum. EEA supported by the ETC/CCA will review the texts and provide further advice how to select the project results.

b) Submission of content to the database

EEA, together with the ETC/CCA, intends to develop a time-schedule, indicating when important results of EU research projects are expected to be finalised and subsequently published18. Based on the schedule we propose to ask the research projects for the provision of the results. This approach has been followed with several research projects in the past and we intend to enhance this approach also with other projects. A number of research consortia (e. g. BASE, ToPDad) have already agreed to submit the respective metadata on results to be published in 2016.

In order to submit the metadata and links to the relevant sources of information for a research project to Climate-ADAPT, different workflows should be used.

a) Enable the accessibility of all relevant EU funded research projects:

EEA together with the ETC/CCA has identified 31 FP7 projects to be added to the database (see section 4 a, 4c). Those can be made accessible on Climate-ADAPT through the item category “Research and knowledge project” in the Climate-ADAPT database.

Submissions will be made online. The metadata sheet for the item category is enclosed in Annex III.

b) Enable the accessibility of relevant individual project resultsThere are different types of outputs of adaptation projects. Those can be made accessible on Climate-ADAPT through the different item categories (Publications and reports; Information portals; Guidance documents; Tools; Maps, graphs and datasets; Indicators; Organisations).

Submissions will be made online. For details see Annex IV.

18 http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/nrc-climate-change-adaptation/library/workshops-meetings/climate-adapt-development-webinars/second-webinar-october-2015/webinar-documents/draft-schedule-expected-research-results

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When submitting individual project results to the Climate-ADAPT database the providers should consider the criteria for the updating of the database19. Those criteria cover the relevance, the language and the geographic scope of the information. The criteria are summarized in Annex V.A DB item can be submitted done using the ‘Share your information’ section on the “Home” page20. To ensure the quality of the information on the DB, submitted items are reviewed based on the above mentioned criteria and approved by the content reviewers, before becoming available online.All database items have metadata categories21. The following metadata categories are common for all items: sectors, climate impacts, adaptation elements, dates and geographic characterization (See Annex III, IV). Items in the DB are searchable once the metadata have been completed. There can also be links to the original information sources. Researchers who are interested in submitting datasets are advised to contact the Climate-ADAPT administrator.

Annex VI shows how to submit a ‘Publication and report’ to the DB.

6. Areas of possible enhanced collaboration

DG CLIMA/EEA is looking for feedback on the systematic approach for the selection of the more in-depth presented research projects.

EEA supported by ETC/CCA is inviting the proposed research projects to follow the proposed procedure for the submission of metadata for the “research projects pages” descriptions and the individual project results to the database. Follow-up calls for more technical clarification can be held.

DG CLIMA/EEA will prepare a proposal for the presentation of Copernicus Climate Services pre-operational projects and for links to the new Copernicus climate change service. A separate discussion will be organised, which may include a webinar, in 2016.

19http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/nrc-climate-change-adaptation/library/workshops-meetings/climate-adapt- development-webinars/second-webinar-october-2015/webinar-documents/climate-adapt-standard-operational-procedures 20 This requires that the person submitting the information has an EIONET account to log in.21 Metadata fields are the same for “Publications and reports”, “Information Portals”, “Guidance”, “Tools”, “Indicators”, “Organisations” (and “Maps, graphs & datasets”); For “Research and knowledge projects”, “adaptation options” and “Case studies” the metadata fields required are different and specific for these items.

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List of Annexes

Annex I: Overview of important Climate-ADAPT sectionsAnnex II: Database item typesAnnex III: Metadata for the DB item type “research and knowledge projects”Annex IV: Metadata for other DB item typesAnnex V Climate-ADAPT database selection criteriaAnnex VI: Exercise for the submission of DB items

Annex I: Overview of important Climate-ADAPT sections

Table 1: Overview on Climate-ADAPT content updating process

Entry points/Sections Content Updating by

Adaptation information, tools

Information and metadata for: 1) Observations and scenarios 2) Vulnerabilities and risks3) Generic adaptation options 4) EU funded research projects5) Tools for adaptation policy and planning including interactive map-based tools

1, 2, 3) EEA, supported by ETC/CCA

4) External submissions from the research community5) DG CLIMA/EEA, supported by ETC/CCA

EU Adaptation policy 1) EU Adaptation strategy2) EU Adaptation funding 3) EU sector policies

DG CLIMA, supported by EEA, ETC/CCACities: Mayors Adapt (merged since Oct 2015 with the Covenant of Mayors)

Countries, regions, cities Adaptation knowledge base, policy and planning for 1)countries, 2) regions, 3) cities

1). EU Member states based on MMR reporting and voluntary update 2). Transnational regions:EEA, supported by external submissions3) EEA, supported by ETC/CCA

Searchable Database Quality checked resources on climate change, vulnerability and adaptation

EEA, supported by ETC/CCA, external submissions e.g. from the research community

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Content of the Climate-ADAPT sections

a) EU Adaptation Policy Section These pages, updated by the European Commission present an overview on the EU Adaptation Strategy, the Mainstreaming of adaptation in EU sector policies as well as an overview and detailed information on EU funding of adaptation. Furthermore, Information on the EU commissions Mayors Adapt Initiative for adaptation in cities is available.

b) Transnational regions The ‘Transnational regions’ page provides information on strategies and actions that have been developed or are currently under development for the EU transnational regions and for other regions and countries (outermost regions, overseas countries and territories). The page covers 13 regions that have been defined by the European Commission (DG REGIO) and agreed with Member States for translational cooperation, including two macro-national regions. EU programmes and other organisations provide information on adaptation strategies and actions across countries in the EU, the wider Europe and its neighbouring countries. The update of the information on the transnational regions page will be finalised in 2016.

c) Countries The country pages cover policy and legislation, priority sectors, assessments and research, engaging stakeholders and local action. The information was updated on a voluntary basis from the launch of the platform (2012) to 2015. From March 2015 all EU Member States22 are required to report to the Commission, information on their national adaptation planning and strategies, outlining their implemented or planned actions to facilitate adaptation to climate change according to Article 1523 of the Monitoring Mechanism Regulation24. 26 countries have so far submitted their MMR reports and almost all of these have been uploaded onto Climate-ADAPT to replace the existing voluntary information. The Commission provided the following template to MS for the MMR reporting.

1. Policy and legal framework2. Impact, vulnerability and adaptation information and assessments

a. Observations and projectionsb. Impacts & vulnerability assessmentc. Researchd. Progress monitoring. Effectiveness/efficiency.

3. Priority sectors and adaptation action4. Participation & capacity building (Engaging stakeholders)

a. Governanceb. Adaptation capacity, dissemination, education, training

5. Summary table6. Contact

22 EU 28 Member States. The EEA has 33 member countries (the EU 28 MS plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey) and six cooperating countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo under the UN Security Council Resolution 1244/99).23 http://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/703/overview 24 Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union level relevant to climate change and repealing Decision No 280/2004/EC, OJ L 165, 18.6.2013, p. 13.

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There is a requirement to report every four years, aligned with the timings for reporting to the UNFCCC (i.e. 1 Jan. 2018, 1 Jan 2022, etc.). In between these reporting dates, countries can update their pages on a voluntary basis. The MMR makes reference to the Climate-ADAPT platform and the role of the EEA, which is to assist the Commission to disseminate information collected under this Regulation.

d) Cities Information on adaptation at city level is being presented at the “Cities and towns” page including descriptive text on the policy framework as well as links to the most relevant websites (including the EU Mayors Adapt initiative) and additional links to the most relevant resources and tools.

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Annex II: Database Item types

Publications and reports: Reports, documents, publications as well as policy documents and acts such as assessments, national adaptation strategies and plans;

Information portals: Information portals related to adaptation include climate related portals focusing on climate scenarios/predictions and regional, national or European adaptations platforms;

Guidance documents: Guidance documents, portals, sections of portals and Web pages specifically aimed at providing guidance on the development and implementation of transnational, national or sub-national adaptation policies;

Tools: Online interactive tools providing support for adaptation, such as decision support systems, modelling and visualisation tools, and tools for cost-benefit analysis;

Maps, graphs and datasets: Datasets, maps and graphs related to climate change adaptation, including, for example, maps visualising observations, projections, impacts, vulnerabilities and risks. Map viewers are also included;

Indicators: Specific datasets of high European relevance and quality, indicative for adaptation elements and sectors;

Research and knowledge projects: Research and knowledge projects (and programmes) aimed at developing the climate change adaptation knowledge base including e.g. EU FP projects, INTERREG and LIFE+ projects;

Organisations: Organisations and co-operative programs working in the domain of climate change adaptation.

Adaptation options: Description of generic options (possible measures and actions) for climate adaptation, which are based on literature;

Case studies: Descriptions of inspiring practical cases, projects, studies that implement / investigate (a set of) adaptation options in practice

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Annex III: Metadata for Climate-ADAPT DB item type: “Research and Knowledge Projects”

Field name Format DefinitionC

ompu

lsor

y fie

lds

Acronym Free text Acronym of the project

Title Free text Title of the project

Lead Free text Lead Partner

Description Free text Description of the item

Partners Other partners

Keywords Free text Words immediately identifying the item

Policy Sectors Tick boxes Sectors of relevance for policy-making

Climate Impacts Tick boxes Impacts assessed or to be addressed through adaptation

Elements Tick boxes Kind of analysis

Source of Funding Free Text Project Funder

Duration Free Text Start and End Date

Website Free text One or more website to find further details

Source Free text Information about legal and institutional aspects

Document File Upload Document related to the item described

Com

pul

sory

Geographic characterisation

Tick box – various level

Allows for more detailed geographic characterisation, including different level of information

Countries Tick boxes Member States interested by the item

Subnational Regions Selection NUTS2 classifications

Municipality Name Free Text Name of city or local area

Comments Free text Any comments provided with the item

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Annex IV

Metadata for Climate-ADAPT DB items types: “Publications and reports”, “Information Portals”, “Guidance”, “Tools”, “Indicators”, “Organisations” (and “Maps, graphs & datasets”)

Field name Format Definition

Com

puls

ory

field

s

Name Free text Title of the item

Description Free text Description of the item

Keywords Free text Words immediately identifying the item

Policy Sectors Tick boxes Sectors of relevance for policy-making

Climate Impacts Tick boxes Impacts assessed or to be addressed through adaptation

Elements Tick boxes Kind of analysis

Year Number Year of release/update

Website Free text One or more website to find further details

Source Free text Information about legal and institutional aspects

Document File Upload Document related to the item described

Com

pul

sory

Geographic characterisation

Tick box – various level

Allows for more detailed geographic characterisation, including different level of information

Countries Tick boxes Member States interested by the item

Subnational Regions Selection NUTS2 classifications

Municipality Name Free Text Name of city or local area

Comments Free text Any comments provided with the item

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Annex V Climate-ADAPT database selection criteria FOCUS – Content should have a strong focus on climate change adaptation in Europe. DB

items with focus on e.g. mitigation or sustainable management but with no explicit connection with climate change adaptation are outside the scope of the platform and therefore not eligible for inclusion in Climate-ADAPT. General EU policy documents can be included in the DB if it concerns a policy that is important for mainstreaming of adaptation and mentioned in the EU adaptation strategy. For example, the Habitats Directive is relevant for decision makers working on mainstreaming of adaptation. However national policy documents, e.g. referring to national biodiversity conservation policies, should not be included.

RELEVANCE – Content should be relevant for the target audience: governmental decision-makers, working on the development and implementation of adaptation strategies or actions at European, transnational, national and sub-national level (regional, local e.g. cities), including sectoral decision makers that deal with mainstreaming of adaptation in their sector.

GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE – The focus of Climate-ADAPT is on Europe (the EU28 member states, and the non-EU 5 EEA member countries).

- DB items with context outside Europe are not eligible.- Exceptions for DB items with context outside EU – DB items focussing on climate

change impacts, vulnerability and/or adaptation beyond the scope of the EEA member countries are eligible for inclusion into the Climate-ADAPT DB only, if the content is relevant and applicable to Europe and provides added value to existing Climate-ADAPT content. This may include content from the European Commission, its contractors or international organisations (such as WHO Europe, ISDR Europe, and OECD). These include also e.g. important global assessments that extensively cover Europe (e.g. IPCC reports).

UP TO DATE – Information provided should be recent and up-to-date. LANGUAGE – Only English documents should be included. Only those reports in foreign

national languages should be included that include a detailed summary in English and that are considered of key relevance and added value (see criteria above).

QUALITY ASSURANCE – Climate-ADAPT expects that the provider of the information has performed their own quality assurance procedures, which include peer review. The additional procedure that is performed within Climate-ADAPT is to check and ensure that all required metadata are properly filled.

The criteria are explained in more detail in the Climate-ADAPT Standard Operational Procedures (SOP)25

25 http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/nrc-climate-change-adaptation/library/workshops-meetings/climate-adapt-development-webinars/second-webinar-october-2015/webinar-documents/climate-adapt-standard-operational-procedures

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Annex VI: Exercise – Submitting a ‘Publication and Report’ DB item (role: User)

1) Make sure that the item to submit is not already present in the platform (surfing the database using key-words or specific search through available fields; section

2) Login as a User (use your current Climate-ADAPT role settings).

3) From the home page26, click on “Share your information”.

26 One can also find the “share your information” button in the bottom-right of database items.

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4) Select the type of information you would like to input by clicking on it (for example, “Publications and Reports” on which the following procedure is based on27).

5) Sign in with your EIONET account - for first time submitters, we kindly suggest to look at the available example at the same webpage.

6) Digit your username and password (EIONET account) and then sign in.

27 Clicking on the other types, the procedure is very similar.

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7) Click on “Add a Publication and/or a Report”.

8) Start filling the required fields, making sure that information relevant for all compulsory fields are available and correctly filled in. There are four dimensions to go through, visible in the menu on the left side:

Item Description;

Reference Information;

Documents;

Geographic Information.

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9) In Item Description, scrolling top-down the required (all compulsory) fields are:

Item Name;

Item Description;

Keywords;

Policy sectors;

Climate Impacts;

Not compulsory, but strongly suggested to be filled are: Elements;

Year.

10) Once the first step is completed, click on the green button on the bottom right “Next - Reference Information”28 to start with the second step. Two fields required here:

Website;

Reference source.

28 Or the second green button on the menu on top left

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11) Then, click on “Next – Documents”, where, if desired, it is possible to upload relevant files (up to five). Only if a document is uploaded, a brief name of the file and a short description is compulsory.

12) Then, click on “Next – Geographic Information”. This is compulsory. It refers to the actual location or area to which the document refers, not where the analysis is potentially applicable. There are two main options:

If choose “Global”, the process is over;

If choose “Europe”, it should be selected one or more for both Macro-Transnational29 and Biogeographical Regions in which Europe is divided, as well as one, more or all countries as relevant, and finally the subnational regions if applicable.

13) If desired, the submitter can add comments for the content reviewer.

14) Clicking on “Save as Draft”.

29 List available at http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/transnational-regions

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15) The window below appears; to complete the procedure, click on “Submit for Review Process”.

16) The procedure is now completed and the submitter receives an e-mail for confirmation.

17) At this stage, the only way to edit the item is clicking on the link to the e-mail above; this is only possible until the content reviewer approves the item.

Please note:

18) “Save as Draft” it is also possible at each of the previous steps, if not all relevant information is available when the submission procedure starts;

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Once the item is “Saved as Draft”, the submitter can leave the item in this status and, also after the logout, can come back to the item and complete the submission clicking on “Modify the saved …”.

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