A participatory approach to increase urban resilience while addressing seismic vulnerability in six Adriatic-Ionian countries

Among natural hazards, earthquakes are particularly relevant for the Adriatic-Ionian area. In fact, seismic risk is one of the highest in this region, not only due to the severity of earthquakes, but also due to the high levels of exposure and vulnerability. Those territories are characterised by high population density, and richness of cultural and natural heritage. Although the importance of addressing seismic vulnerability at urban level is increasingly recognised, there is a lack of integration of seismic risk assessment into urban planning tools. To enhance urban resilience, there is an urgent need to identify and engage all the relevant stakeholders who can support the operationalisation of the knowledge on seismic vulnerability and the capitalisation of current good experiences. To support the transfer from research to practice, a participatory methodology has been designed in the framework of the EU funded ADRISEISMIC project to ensure all the relevant stakeholders are identified and engaged in collecting and validating the resilience good practices and tailoring them to the local or regional contexts. The contribution presents the participatory approach which led to the organisation of a series of local workshops in six project countries (i.e., Italy, Slovenia, Albania, Greece, Serbia and Croatia) to support policy makers to take actions to increase urban resilience while improving the way policy and planning instruments address seismic vulnerability at urban level.