The Institute for the Ecology of Industrial Areas is the coordinator of the international project CICADA4CE – Efficiency of the climate change adaptation management by integration of ecosystem services and smart social approaches in Central European cities, in which 12 partners from the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy and Poland participate. The project is financed by the INTERREG CE Program of the European Union. The second project partner from Poland is the city of Sosnowiec.

Climate change is currently one of the most significant problems in the world. Initially, the main activities focused on mitigation, i.e. reducing greenhouse gas emissions, among others by limiting the burning of fossil fuels, increasing energy efficiency, using renewable energy sources, or saving energy. In recent years, the importance of adaptation activities as adapting to and limiting the effects of climate change has increased.

The impact of the effects of climate change on urbanized areas is a challenge that we are not yet able to meet, due among others to the lack or low involvement of interested parties and local communities, which is reducing the effectiveness of implementing urban adaptation strategies. The city's adaptive capabilities include its technological, ecological, organizational and social potential. Therefore, it is necessary to use an approach which would integrate: ecosystem services, the participation of a smart community and a smart city.

The aim of the CICADA4CE project is to strengthen urban strategies/plans for adaptation to climate change by popularizing activities including solutions based on nature resources (Nature-based Solutions, NbS) and ecosystem services and integrating them with "hard" technical/technological solutions. This approach will also be associated with motivating, engaging and including local communities, which will enable joint planning and implementation of adaptation activities in cities based on ecosystems and communities – Ecosystem with Community-based Adaptation (ECbA).

In the CICADA4CE project, models of cooperation in building urban strategies based on the ECbA concept will be developed in the process of co-creation and joint implementation of action plans in 5 European pilot cities. This will allow to use different experiences of the project partners, which will ensure functionality and usefulness of the developed solutions and will make it possible to transfer them to other regions of Europe.

Project implementers, in cooperation with local authorities, research organizations and other interested parties, will work to strengthen integration and synergy between technical/technological, environmental, economic and social innovations in order to jointly develop the most effective solutions mobilizing the ecological and social potential of cities for climate protection activities and adaptation to the effects of its changes.

The CICADA4CE project will start by identifying requirements, challenges and opportunities for increasing resilience and adaptation to climate change in 5 pilot cities - Břeclav (Czech Republic), Dubnica nad Váhom (Slovakia), Kranj (Slovenia), Nichelino (Italy), Sosnowiec (Poland). Then, an integrated ECbA concept will be jointly developed, which will be the basis for establishing Local Living Labs and initiating processes of co-creating strategies/plans for adaptation to climate change.

Building the adaptation capacity of cities will be supported by the participation of relevant stakeholders already involved in climate change adaptation processes. To ensure the motivation and involvement of interested parties and representatives of local communities, various forms of deepening knowledge about the processes of adaptation to climate change in cities will be used. The implementers of the CICADA4CE project will disseminate and promote adaptation activities that will use the natural ecosystems existing in urban space, e.g. sinkholes filled with water, wetlands, urban forests, wastelands, etc. At the same time, the benefits for the environment and residents resulting from the implementation of nature-based solutions will be shown.

As a result, strategies/plans will be based on innovative, comprehensive climate change adaptation frameworks, including ecosystem services and local community activities.

We expect that within 2.5 years of cooperation, pilot activities, testing of the proposed technical, economic, social and ecosystem innovations in 5 cities and their synergies will demonstrate the benefits of the ecosystem and community approach to adaptation to climate change.

 

Project consortium

- The Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, Poland (coordination)
- Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Germany
- Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia
- Municipality of Dubnica nad Vahom, Slovakia
- IURS – Institute for Sustainable Development of Settlements, Czech Republic
- City of Breclav, Czech Republic
- LINKS Foundation, Italy
- LAMORO Development Agency, Italy
- Municipality of Nichelino, Italy
- Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Slovakia
- City of Kranj, Czech Republic
- Municipality of Sosnowiec, Poland

 

Project implementation period: June 2024 – November 2026

Project coordinator: Anna Starzewska-Sikorska, e-mail:

Project website: https://www.interreg-central.eu/projects/cicada4ce/

 

Source of financing:

The project received funding under the INTERREG Central Europe instrument, CE0200553