ECCA ’23 Dublin Toolkit forum, sessions about REACHOUT Tools and Climate Stories

From Monday 19 to Wednesday 21 June ECCA 2023, Europe’s influential climate adaptation conference, will be held in Dublin, Ireland. An audience of adaptation experts such as policy-makers, local authorities, the private sector, NGO’s and investors, will be able to hear from Europe’s leading climate researchers who are using trusted data to develop cutting-edge climate action tools, decision-support platforms and prototype climate services for adapting to many different climate challenges.

Results and tools of the REACHOUT project will be presented at ECCA on the all day Tools Forum in the Piazza. There will be a session on Climate Tools and a session on Climate Stories.

Toolkit forum for climate resilient cities and regions

On the 21st of June from 11:30-13.10 in La Touche pitches and demonstrations will be given of various tools from REACHOUT that improve (city) resilience. Also tools from EU sister-projects will be showcased, such as Transformar, Pathways2resilience and Regilience. The Tools Forum will provide the possibility to bring users and developers together.

Theme: 1. Stepping Up Climate Action: Support Through Climate Platforms and Services

Name and organisation of the chair(s) Ad Jeuken (Deltares) & Hasse Goosen (Climate Adaptation Service)

The tool forum will demonstrate different climate services-tools developed in Green Deal projects REACHOUT, REGLIENCE, ARSINOE, IMPETUS and TRANSFORMAR. Through demonstration of tools, the status and challenges of climate service development in support of urban and regional adaptation will be discussed. The tool forum is intended to facilitate interaction between urban/regional resilience policymakers (target EU mission on cities and adaption), consultants, climate service platforms and developers. Before and after the session further interaction with the developers can take place at the Conference Centre (Lower Ground Floor Level) just outside Main Plenary room (check for the REACHOUT booth).

The following tools will be demonstrated through short 5 min pitches:

1) Social Vulnerability Tool: University College Cork – Denise McCullagh GitHub – jamesfitton/ISVEHI

2) Climate resilient cities toolbox – Deltares – Sarah Wright https://crctool.org/

3) HIPS Hotspot Identification and Prioritization Service – IMPETUS project – EURECAT – Josep Pijuan Parra https://impetus.uwmh.eu/

4) Flood Adapt Tool – Deltares – Gundula Winter FloodAdapt – an adaptation planning tool | Deltares

5) ARCH resilience pathway visualization tool – Tecnalia – Saioa Zorita Castresana http://arch.tecnalia.com/index

6) Pluvial Flood Tool – CMCC – Jeremy Pal Pluvial hazard, risk assessment and adaptation – REACHOUT (reachout-cities.eu)

7) Thermal Heat Assessment tool – Tecnalia – Nieves Pena https://thermal-assessment.urban.tecnalia.dev/

8) Climate Stories – Climate Adaptation Services – Timo Kelder https://reachout-cities.eu/climate-story-milan-presented-at-fa-la-cosa-giusta/

9) Maladaptation self assessment tool – Fresh Thoughts – Guido Schmidt https://regilience.eu/self-assessment-tool-for-maladaptation/

10) Transformar Playbook webtool – ACTERRA – Stephane Simonet https://app.transformar.eu/

11) Climate adaptation funding overview tool – Fresh Thoughts – Guido Schmidt https://regilience.eu/funding-opportunities/

Interactive session: Towards a Common Toolkit to Accelerate the Development of Climate Resilience across Europe

On June 20th, between 11:30 and 13:00 hours, Deltares and CAS will be hosting an interactive session on Climate Tools for tool and service providers and policy-makers. Topics will include the need for tools and services from regional/urban adaptation (Pathways2Resilience project – Tecnalia / CKIC), the question of securing the post-project legacy of tools and services (REACHOUT – CAS / Deltares) and the requirements for tools to be fit for use (ClimateEurope2 – BSC / CMCC).

Interactive session: How to Tell a Climate Story?

On June 20th, between 16:30 and 17:45 hours, NGI and CAS will host an interactive session on how to compose a Climate Story as part of the joint session ‘Learning effective climate communication’. NGI and CAS will be using the experiences and knowledge from their collaboration with the city hubs. The workshop will explain how climate related research, climate actions and climate services can be presented in the form of a story, with a story line and different personas to get the climate message across. The workshop will show the steps that can be taken to tailor Climate Stories for different end users.

Heat Stress, Urban Cooling: Solutions and Inequities 

Increasing of heat stress events is the most obvious outcome of global climate change, associated with profound adverse impacts on humans and natural systems. Regional and urban areas, exacerbated by multiple factors such as population densities and the urban heat island effect, are focal points for intensified heat exposure.

On June 21st, between 9:00 and 11:00 hours, ADEME, TECNALIA, CICERO and AUAS will be hosting a session at ECCA (Guard Room, Bedford Hall) to share European research experiences, case studies, and methodologies to better understand heat stress risks and develop mitigation strategies to mitigate the impacts.

Topics will include the need of addressing inequities in exposures and vulnerability (by Kristin Aunan – CICERO), the need of climate services to better understand past and future heatwave phenomena at regional and local scales in Europe (by Nieves Peña – TECNALIA), the issue of combining meteorological, social, and environmental indicators to identify and prioritize project locations for mitigating heat stress in urban areas (by Stephanie Erwin – AUAS), as well as a review of heat resilient measures (by Muriel Desgeorges – ADEME).

The session is aimed for adaptation experts – researchers’ and practitioners as well as policy-makers and local authorities already engaged and willing to take action on climate risk. So if your are interested in this topic you are welcome to contribuite to this interactive session.