Adaptation to climate change and regional planning: a scrutiny of sectoral instruments

Adaptation to climate change means adjustment of human and natural systems to climatic actual or expected events, in order to minimize damage or maximize benefit. Adaptation implies involvement, coordination, and cooperation of different actors and sectors. Multi-actor collaboration usually characterizes the drafting of regional plans, which act as bridge between national and local administrative level. Regional administrations address resilience issues, through spatial planning processes. This study focuses on the regional plans adopted by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (Italy), south European Mediterranean region, an area that will be negatively affected by climate change in the coming decades. We aim at proposing a method for scrutinizing regional plans related to spatial planning issues, by using criteria rooted in scientific literature and adaptation strategies. We found out that (i) scientific literature did not sufficiently address the role of regional plans in the context of adaptation to climate change and (ii) the method proposed and applied in this study highlights whether some key adaptation issues are included in the plans, and might make aware planners and policy makers of basic information concerning the interplay ‘regional planning vs adaptation to climate change’.