Planning the Adaptation of European Landscapes to Climate Change: The Experience of the EIT Climate-KIC AELCLIC Project

Despite growing awareness about climate change (CC) issues, European landscapes are facing increasingly severe challenges related to CC for which a common understanding, vision and effective integrated solutions are not yet avail-able or implemented on a large scale. Therefore, planning the adaptation of land-scapes to CC is crucial for our well-being and socio-economic development. From this concern stemmed the EIT Climate-KIC AELCLIC-Pathfinder project (aelclic-pathfinder.com), aimed at defining and testing transferable and scalable models in different climatic, socio-economic, cultural and bio-geographical European condi-tions for the creation of local networks able to define their own Landscape CC Adapta-tion Plans (LACAPs). The paper presents some of the main findings of a comparative analysis of the 15 pilot landscapes included in the project. The following were found to be key AELCLIC principles: 1. The landscape concept functions as a systemic and integrated framework to overcome sectoral approaches and to foster a new approach to CC adaptation, deeply rooted in participatory learning and co-creation processes. 2. The construction of multi-stakeholder local networks helps assure the imple-mentability, legitimacy and feasibility of the outcomes. 3. The community-based identification of landscape values, CC impacts, goals and topics for CC adapta-tion enhances local support and the solidity of the adaptation strategy or LACAP. Moreover, by following this process, opportunities for innovative actions, potential solutions for foreseeable problems and options to overcome barriers can be discussed in a more productive and visionary way. In all its pilot landscapes, AELCLIC led to the co-definition of programmatic inputs for LACAPs, whose scope and form varied based on the specific context (strategic plans, thematic or specific plans, pilot actions, etc.). Their potential integration with other policies and planning tools were taken into account. AELCLIC has created new spaces and expanded existing ones for inter-national and intercultural dialogue on an issue of crucial importance for both local communities and Europe. This shows that CC adaptation can become an opportunity for promoting landscape quality and strengthening landscape identities.