Cities play an important role regarding potential climate change impacts. Three quarters of European population live in urban areas that are often vulnerable and poorly prepared to respond to climate change impacts, such as heat waves, water scarcity, drought or floods. In addition to the population, in urban areas high proportion of socio-economic activities as well as production of greenhouse gases take place. The risks associated with climate change in urban areas increase their vulnerability and can have widespread negative impacts on quality of life (safety, health, income, and assets), as well as on the national economy, urban ecosystems and natural capital.

UrbanAdapt project aims to initiate and progress the process of urban adaptation strategies development, while proposing and evaluating suitable adaptation measures and actions with the support of ecosystem-based approaches in the three pilot cities in the Czech Republic (Prague, Brno, Pilsen). The intermediate goals of the project include climate change vulnerability assessment, identifying in collaboration with stakeholders relevant adaptation measures, evaluation of the preferred measures in terms of the costs and benefits, design and formulation of adaptation strategies for the three pilot cities and initiating steps for their implementation. The upcoming urban adaptation strategies are linked to the National Adaptation Strategy that is currently under preparation.

An important component of the UrbanAdapt project is incorporation of the "green and blue infrastructure" as well as ecosystem services into the adaptation cycle and individual adaptation measures and adaptation alternatives. The EU Adaptation strategy (2013) supports the ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation as cost-effective solutions that are easily accessible and provide a wide range of co-benefits such as flood risk reduction, reduction of soil erosion, improved water and air quality and decrease of the urban heat island effect.

UrbanAdapt project (EHP-CZ02-OV-1-036-2015) is supported by grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The project implementation period is January 2015 - April 2016.

Project is coordinated by Global Change Research Institute AS CR, Department of Human Dimension of Global Change.