Ecosystem Based Adaptation to Climate Change

Smart Control of the Climate Resilience in European Coastal Cities (acronym: SCORE)
Call: H2020-LC-CLA-2018-2019-2020 Topic: LC-CLA-13-2020
European Commission 2021-2025

Costal City Living labs (CCLL) is one of the main concepts behind SCORE: it is a new approach that expands the living lab concept in coastal cities to address climate change adaptation and resilience issues.
      • The overall aim of SCORE is to design, develop, monitor and validate robust adaptation measures in coastal and low-lying areas to protect them from increasing climate and sea level risks, including coastal flooding and erosion, to enhance their overall long-term resilience.
• SCORE is based on co-design, co-development, deploying, testing, and demonstrating innovative EBAs, smart technologies and hybrid Nature Based Solutions (NBSs), while facilitating financial sustainability.
• Lead Partner Dr Salem Gharbia It Sligo, Ireland
• Slovenian Lead, Dr Shé Hawke, accompanied By Dr Cécil Meulenberg; Dr Irina Cavaion; Dr Blaž Lenarčič
Mediterranean Institute for Environmental Studies, Science and Research Centre (ZRS), Koper, Slovenia.

Correct citation: BLASCHKE, P. M., PEDERSEN ZARI, M., ARCHIE, K. M., JACKSON, B., KOMUGABE-DIXSON, A., LIVESEY, C., LOUBSER, D., MARTINEZ-ALMOYNA GUAL, C., MAXWELL, D., RASTANDEH, A., RENWICK, J. & WEAVER, S. 2017 'Ecosystem Assessment and Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) Options for Port Vila, Vanuatu'.
Wellington, New Zealand: Report prepared by Victoria University of Wellington for the Pacific Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC) Programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).


Port Vila is the capital and largest city of the Melanesian island nation of Vanuatu, and is situated on the southern coast of Efate, the third largest island in Vanuatu.  The Pacific Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC) Project responds to these vulnerability challenges. The five-year Project (implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)) explores and promotes Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) options for adapting to climate change in the Pacific region.  EbA is the practice of strengthening ecosystems to increase people’s ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change.  It draws upon knowledge of ecosystem services and is based on the premise that if ecosystems are protected, remediated, or regenerated, this leads to healthier ecosystems, more ecosystem services, and therefore greater human wellbeing and resilience to the impacts of climate change. The current study continues the PEBACC project in Vanuatu.  It builds on an earlier PEBACC study that undertook a baseline ecosystem and socio-economic resilience analysis and mapping appraisal of the Port Vila Metropolitan area.  The methodology approach adopted provided for mainly desk-top review work, supplemented by four key workshops (including one in Port Vila), interviews with Port Vila stakeholders, and brief field inspection in Port Vila.

Correct citation: PEDERSEN ZARI, M., BLASCHKE, P. M., LIVESEY, C., MARTINEZ-ALMOYNA GUAL, C., WEAVER, S., ARCHIE, K. M., JACKSON, B., KOMUGABE-DIXSON, A., LOUBSER, D., MAXWELL, D., RASTANDEH, A. & RENWICK, J. 'Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Project Implementation Plans, Port Vila, Vanuatu'. Wellington, New Zealand: Report prepared by Victoria University of Wellington for the Pacific Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change Programme (PEBACC) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

As part of the process of selecting the proposed EbA projects, an analysis was done of how each project could potentially increase or support the provision of ecosystem services in Port Vila. The following five projects were identified as being of high priority for the Port Vila ridge to reef context in terms of addressing urgent ecological issues and increasing community resilience to vulnerabilities related to climate change and to wider development issues.

1.Riparian corridors regeneration plan
2.Restoration and protection of coastal vegetation
3.Intensification
of suburban and peri-urban village and settlement home gardens 4.Urban trees: The strategic introduction of more multi-use trees and vegetation into built up areas of Port Vila
5.Sustainable housing development

Bangladesh is confronting multitude threats of climate change related extreme events. The decadal observation provides strong evidences of climate changes in terms of excessive or minimum rainfall events, changing frequency and intensity of floods, cyclone and tidal surge, and sea level rise have been gradually increasing fast and slow impacts. The cyclonic wind and tidal surges along coasts; or floods and river erosion in floodplain areas already incurred severe degradation and loss of the associated ecosystem services. Coastal ecosystems are dynamic and possessing different resources including accreted lands, mangroves, estuaries, rivers and seas which are contributing to a range of productive and protective functions in Bangladesh. By contrast, extreme events and climate changes are increasing impacts persistently on coastal resources at different degree and scale through disaster that causes severe damages of protective mangroves; salinity intrusion and tidal inundation height degrades regenerative functions and land use productivity. Mostly coastal resources are highly sensitive to climate changes that results significant loss of traditional land uses for agriculture or fishing, and eventually weaken the capacity of the protective ecosystem and community for adaptation. Protection of coastal
livelihoods through physical embankment or mangrove afforestation for land stabilization was already recognized to be effective measure in Bangladesh without understanding sustainability and dynamic capacity of these interventions for adaptation of local communities. Adaptation in coastal areas is increasingly becoming complicated and difficult to isolate any of the social and ecological activities which required integrated resource management and land use planning for longterm adaptation. There are needed understanding protective and productive uses of coastal lands for integrating ecosystem into adaptation and sustaining community benefits. The paper presents potential roles of coastal land uses for ecosystem based adaptation in Bangladesh. The paper addresses some emerging adaptation and resilience perspective in coastal ecosystems followed by sharing experience of an innovative land use pattern, and discussed the diversified benefits of conservation, livelihood sustainability, community integration and institutions for ecosystem based adaptation. The potential role of ecosystem based adaptation is integrated and protective resource management approach through transformative land use system, building community ownership and resiliency of coastal forests. Decentralized roles of community and local institutions in participatory decision-making of land uses and climatic risk management offers flexibility and renewal opportunities and enhance sustainability of protective coastal ecosystems. Community based resource governance not only ensures ecosystem based adaptation locally, but also contributes to managing dynamic social–ecological system in coastal areas as well as global mitigation.

Unprecedented global challenges demand wide-reaching societal modification to ensure life support functions and human well-being. In the absence of adequate international responses to climate change and the need for place-based adaptation, local governments have a pivotal role in fostering sustainability transitions. In this context, the importance of ecosystem-based adaptation is increasingly recognized as a multi-benefit approach that utilizes ecosystem services to harmonize human-environment systems. Although research advocates the mainstreaming of ecosystem-based adaptation to advance sustainable planning, the pathways for its systematic implementation are missing and it remains unclear how local authorities can best integrate this new approach into their core work. The purpose of this study is to increase knowledge of the potential ways to mainstream ecosystem-based adaptation into municipal planning. We investigate four coastal municipalities in southern Sweden (Malmo ̈ , Helsingborg, Lomma and Kristianstad) and examine, based on vertical and horizontal integration processes, the key characteristics of existing mainstreaming strategies. Results show that, although ecosystem service planning and climate change adaptation planning together establish the conceptual foundation for ecosystem-based adaptation, related activities are often implemented separately and are rarely comprehensive. We illustrate how combined mainstreaming strategies can reinforce and complement each other and how strong leadership in the integration of processes has the ability to compensate for a lack of guidance or supporting legislation from higher decision-making levels. Finally, we conclude that systemic mainstreaming of sustainability issues is a promising avenue for initiating and promoting sustainability transitions and has the potential to address the criticism that other mainstreaming topics have faced. On this basis, we specify the core characteristics necessary to ensure its effective and meaningful application.

As the linked impacts of climate change and degradation of ecosystems continue to be felt, particularly in developing countries, it is vital that methods for development that concurrently address adaptation to climate change, rapid urbanisation, and ecosystem degradation be explored. Further development of approaches which are participatory and embedded in an understanding of the importance of symbiotic relationships between socio-cultural and ecological systems is particularly important. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is one such method that is gaining recognition and momentum in areas where developing nations face converging pressures and drivers of change. EbA methodologies to date, are often ill-defined in an urban context and lack consideration of future social and ecological scenarios however. In response, this paper describes a methodology for developing urban EbA projects in a small island developing nation context. The methodology was developed and applied by a multidisciplinary team working under the auspices of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). The application of this methodology in Port Vila, Vanuatu indicated: i) the needs of local people must be at the forefront of project planning, requiring a participatory design process; ii) EbA solutions development must be multidisciplinary and iterative; iii) appropriate quantitative and qualitative data is vital as a basis for EbA project development, requiring adequate time for data gathering; iv) urban and coastal EbA projects must be developed holistically, recognising socio-ecological systems that extend beyond the urban area itself; v) the complex overlapping landscape of governmental and international aid financed projects must inform the development of new EbA projects; vi) potential monetary and non-monetary benefits, costs and risks across multiple factors must be carefully assessed in EbA project development; and vii) project implementation requires ongoing engagement and a readiness to adapt to on-the-ground realities.

Ecosystem-based measures to reduce the risk of coastal hazards and adapt to climate change have attracted increasing attention in science, policy, and planning. In the coastal zone of Quang Nam province in Central Vietnam, natural ecosystems such as coastal dunes and mangroves can serve as natural buffers against typhoons, storm surges, waves, and even small tsunamis and protect the shoreline from coastal erosion and sea-level rise. Apart from these protective ecosystem services, intact dune and mangrove ecosystems perform various other regulating services, such as carbon storage and sequestration and groundwater protection, as well as a variety of provisioning and cultural services. Moreover they support a high biological diversity, which forms the basis for secure livelihoods of coastal communities. However, important ecosystem functions and services have already been lost or diminished due to overexploitation and a lack of integrated coastal management approaches. In this chapter, we (1) provide an overview of the current distribution and status of dune and mangrove ecosystems in the coastal zone of Quang Nam province, (2) analyze the actual and potential ecosystem services of and threats to these ecosystems in selected study sites, (3) assess the awareness and preparedness of coastal communities to coastal hazards, and (4) discuss the potential for conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of coastal dunes and mangroves.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) established a partnership with Pacific island developing States to develop an integrated policy approach for ocean focused
and climate-responsive urban development strategies. Concentrating on urban areas in Pacific island developing States, this guide introduces an approach that has been adapted for island systems and local, national, regional and global development plans. Within the context of ongoing urbanization processes in Pacific island developing States, the guide recognizes the important links between the impacts of urban growth and development, climate change impacts, ocean health and coastal systems, and the effect these factors have on the development and resilience of “Ocean Cities”.

Ocean Cities are where urban landscapes and seascapes meet, where built and natural environments near coastlines interface and where human behaviour and urban development have profound impacts on both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Ocean Cities are at the forefront of the climate change consequences, the urbanization challenges and other development pressures. Cities face many challenges – demographic, climatic, economic – but they also generate many positive opportunities for future action. This guide is about making that future a bright one by harnessing those activities and supporting a Pacific Way for cities that is culturally and environmentally affirming.