The University of Camerino, as lead partner, illustrated the Joint_SECAP project during an open meeting organized within the “Climate Change and Quality of Life” conference held in occasion of the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of School of Architecture and Design in Ascoli Piceno. The event attracted a wide audience consisting of almost 70 participants such as professors, PhDs, researchers and students of the School of Architecture and Design, representatives of regional and local public institutions, managing authorities of environmental sites, professionals in the field of architecture and agronomy, and associations.

The meeting was introduced by dr Marina Baldi, climatologist of the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council - CNR-IBE, who reiterated the scientific proofs of climate change and how the human activity had contribute to determine such problem. In addition, she declared that Mediterranean areas, and in particular coasts, are one the most vulnerable zones in the world. For this reason it is necessary to limit the climate change effects on territories and cities, and so to plan adaptation strategies based on the knowledge of the extreme phenomena, the identification of vulnerabilities of target areas, the definition of risk management interventions and resiliency planning together with the engagement of local communities.

UNICAM Professor Rosalba D’Onofrio, head of the scientific project team, together with the Professor Roberta Cocci Grifoni, presented the project by focusing on its objectives, actions and in particular on the importance to act at district level in order to better define strategies and actions for climate change adaptation.

In addition, Italian PPs, Abruzzo Region, Municipality of Pescara and Municipality of San Benedetto del Tronto described the activities put in place and their target areas.  

The Municipality of San Benedetto illustrated the perspective that was shared with the Municipalities of Cupra Marittima, Grottammare and Monteprandone on how to plan integrated actions as prerequisite for a sustainable development policy, and so how they investigated the perceptions on potential impacts related to climate change in cities.

The Abruzzo Region described its two pilot areas and in particular how local stakeholders, such as municipalities, were involved thanks to meetings and questionnaires devoted to analyze the potential of climate impact per sector for the definition of impact chain of risks (i.e. erosion) for both the pilot areas.

The Municipality of Pescara showed a picture of adaptation policies, plan, measures and the related available regional and local funding schemes.

In addition, UNICAM staff explained the scenario planning/learning method at the base of the project idea for the definition of future scenarios and related solutions regarding climate change adaptation, and the involvement of local communities during this process. In addition, the multilevel governance promoted by the Covenant of Mayors initiative and the European funding schemes were illustrated.

In conclusion, UNICAM project team will lead participants to visit the exhibition regarding critical environmental issues, state of art of the project implementation, and the description of the applied climate adaptation policies in the project target areas.