Periodic Reporting for period 2 - REACHOUT (RESILIENCE IN EUROPE THROUGH ACTIVATING CITY HUBS REACHING OUT TO USERS WITH TRIPLE-A CLIMATE ADAPTATION TOOLS)
Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2024-03-31
REACHOUT is a research and innovation project. It aims to further develop city-oriented climate services across Europe, i.e. services that provide cities with tailored climate information in order to help them make climate smart decisions. As part of its adaptation strategy, the European Commission has stimulated the growth and establishment of such services. However, uptake of these services is lagging behind.
REACHOUT aims to improve the uptake and success of certain climate services. It brings together municipalities, climate service providers and scientists to co-develop and test a set of improved services in seven city hubs that serve as living labs. Cities are complex decision-making environments with multiple challenges such as spatial planning, mobility, housing, urban greening, climate mitigation, and adaptation. Therefore, the REACHOUT project is piloting a triple-A approach in which climate services not only address the Analysis of climate risk, but also support setting Ambition and defining Action for broader climate resilient urban development. The hypothesis is that through this integrated approach, the uptake of climate services is accelerated and the needs of the cities are better addressed. The REACHOUT project presents a diverse group of European cities that create “Hubs for co-creation of climate service innovations”, i.e. communities that co-create how climate information becomes digestible and value-adding. With 4 small size cities (Lillestrom, Cork, Gdynia and Logrono) and 3 large cities (Milan, Athens, Amsterdam), REACHOUT covers both heat and flood related hazards as well as advanced and less advanced adaptation capacities.
All city hubs are taken through the same journey: 1) Perform a needs-assessment resulting in the definition of requirements for climate services; 2) Co-develop tools to support urban development and adaptation; 3) Apply the tools, following the Triple-A phases; 4) Address barriers for uptake and develop modes for sustainable implementation. This “front-end development with the cities” is central in the project. It takes place in three development cycles, so all cities have the chance to address all 3 A’s. At the “back-end” of the project we start from existing tools and climate services offered by European platforms, that are being piloted in the city hubs. The collected learnings and tool improvement therefore is used to develop a generic triple A toolkit that can be used for upscaling beyond the 7 city hubs.
REACHOUT aims to improve the uptake and success of certain climate services. It brings together municipalities, climate service providers and scientists to co-develop and test a set of improved services in seven city hubs that serve as living labs. Cities are complex decision-making environments with multiple challenges such as spatial planning, mobility, housing, urban greening, climate mitigation, and adaptation. Therefore, the REACHOUT project is piloting a triple-A approach in which climate services not only address the Analysis of climate risk, but also support setting Ambition and defining Action for broader climate resilient urban development. The hypothesis is that through this integrated approach, the uptake of climate services is accelerated and the needs of the cities are better addressed. The REACHOUT project presents a diverse group of European cities that create “Hubs for co-creation of climate service innovations”, i.e. communities that co-create how climate information becomes digestible and value-adding. With 4 small size cities (Lillestrom, Cork, Gdynia and Logrono) and 3 large cities (Milan, Athens, Amsterdam), REACHOUT covers both heat and flood related hazards as well as advanced and less advanced adaptation capacities.
All city hubs are taken through the same journey: 1) Perform a needs-assessment resulting in the definition of requirements for climate services; 2) Co-develop tools to support urban development and adaptation; 3) Apply the tools, following the Triple-A phases; 4) Address barriers for uptake and develop modes for sustainable implementation. This “front-end development with the cities” is central in the project. It takes place in three development cycles, so all cities have the chance to address all 3 A’s. At the “back-end” of the project we start from existing tools and climate services offered by European platforms, that are being piloted in the city hubs. The collected learnings and tool improvement therefore is used to develop a generic triple A toolkit that can be used for upscaling beyond the 7 city hubs.
Period 2 until April 2024: To make REACHOUT tools more widely acessible, a digital platform was developed during this period for the REACHOUT toolkit, providing multiple entry points allowing users to navigate via guiding questions or moving directly to their tool of choice (WP3). Climate stories for each city-hub have been updated and further disseminated in cities to broad audiences including the general public, revealing this method to be an effective communication tool (WP2). Upon the completion of the the second and beginnings of the third co-development cycles, REACHOUT city-hubs and technical partners continued the tool applications begun in the first reporting period, in several cases adding additional tools to city-hub portfolios (WP3). In this period, partners looked closer to the ambition stage of the Triple-A approach, including a carousel of new tools and dialogue among City-Hubs at our second General Assembly in Athens in November 2023. A joint paper is under preparation to further operationalize this idea into adaptation planning approaches and supporting tools. As an example, in the City-hub practice, tools were applied that helped cities in the design and prioritization of measures. For example, Milan and Athens worked on prioritizing locations for urban greening, Gdynia focused on implementation of nature-based solutions. In Cork, a novel method for Climate Resilient Development Pathways was piloted. Furthermore, the Climate Resilient City Toolbox was applied in Athens and Lillestrom. City-hubs have continued to share their experiences and learnings around these and other activities via co-creation lounges to enable cross-hub learning (WP1). The second of three learning modules was finalized, further build climate knowledge in city-hubs on topics such as adaptation pathways and climate resilient development (WP5). Additionally, increased effort has also been put in enhancing the legacy of the project by further strengthening the business models for continued use within the city hub context (WP4), and by strengthening the network with related EU projects (especially the mission on adaptation) and institutions. This has been achieved through our participation in ECCA (toolkit forum and Climate service session with multiple other projects), the ClimateEurope2 festival in Athens (on standardizing climate services) and the transfer of 4 REACHOUT tools (so far) to MIP4ADAPT, the implementation platform for the mission. The communication team has been very active and has delivered among others a Policy Brief (with 2 more currently under development) and a Succes Story for the green Deal coordination and with each contribution of the project is placing a news item (and following up on social media). A campaign on the city’s climate stories is underway, with the following campaign on REACHOUT tools planned for the fall (WP6).
- Progress beyond state of the are has been made in novel applications of tools that are more focused on ambition and action such as a further elaboration of a method for Climate resilience development pathways for Cork, the development of an open data based service for asset level risks assessment and the identification of opportunities for NbS in Cork.
- In addition a novel City hub business model for the implementation and sustainable exploitation of climate services within cities has materialized in period 2 and will be further applied to the cities in the consortium during period 3.
- By continued co-development and testing of climate services into the second year of the project with the city partners has further enhanced the local impact. The collection of REACHOUT services is already accessible in many user oriented ways through the Triple-A toolkit in our web portal and training material and guidances have been expanded.
- Collaboration with other projects especially under the mission on Adaptation and Green deal has intensified. Already 4 REACHOUT tools are available though the Mission portal's tool catalogue meant to serve European regions.
At the end of the project a proven set of services within the triple-A toolkit will remain accessible through a dedicated webpage, that is supported by best practice examples (Demonstrators under development in period 3), training material and thorough guidance. The services will also be accessible through many other channels in our expanding network of projects and platforms. Business and implementation models will have been tested for their ability to further sustain the services. This will allow others beyond the 7 REACHOUT cities to use these services to reach better integrated decisions on climate adaptation, mitigation and urban development.
- In addition a novel City hub business model for the implementation and sustainable exploitation of climate services within cities has materialized in period 2 and will be further applied to the cities in the consortium during period 3.
- By continued co-development and testing of climate services into the second year of the project with the city partners has further enhanced the local impact. The collection of REACHOUT services is already accessible in many user oriented ways through the Triple-A toolkit in our web portal and training material and guidances have been expanded.
- Collaboration with other projects especially under the mission on Adaptation and Green deal has intensified. Already 4 REACHOUT tools are available though the Mission portal's tool catalogue meant to serve European regions.
At the end of the project a proven set of services within the triple-A toolkit will remain accessible through a dedicated webpage, that is supported by best practice examples (Demonstrators under development in period 3), training material and thorough guidance. The services will also be accessible through many other channels in our expanding network of projects and platforms. Business and implementation models will have been tested for their ability to further sustain the services. This will allow others beyond the 7 REACHOUT cities to use these services to reach better integrated decisions on climate adaptation, mitigation and urban development.