The Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Department at ISSNOVA develops integrated strategies and solutions to strengthen the capacity of communities, ecosystems, and infrastructures to anticipate, respond to, and transform under changing climate conditions. Our work combines environmental assessment with social innovation to address both the technical and human dimensions of climate adaptation, ensuring that resilience-building efforts are equitable, inclusive, and sustainable across diverse territorial contexts.
Research Focus
Our interdisciplinary approach addresses the full spectrum of climate adaptation challenges:
-
Vulnerability and Risk Assessment: Systematic evaluation of climate hazards, exposure levels, and adaptive capacity across diverse territorial contexts to identify critical vulnerabilities and inform anticipatory planning
-
Knowledge Integration and Decision Support: Development of frameworks for multi-level coordination, stakeholder engagement, and climate-informed decision-making that bridge knowledge gaps between scientific communities, professionals, and society
-
Social Dimensions of Adaptation: Analysis of climate justice, equity in adaptation planning, and social vulnerabilities to ensure that adaptation measures leave no one behind and address unequal climate burdens
-
Governance and Decision Support: Development of frameworks for multi-level coordination, stakeholder engagement, and climate-informed decision-making that bridge knowledge gaps and enable effective adaptation action
-
Community Empowerment and Participation: Development of bottom-up and collaborative approaches that draw on local knowledge, cultural strengths, and strong community networks to co-create solutions that deliver real impact
- Quantitative and qualitative environmental assessment: Application of a suite of ools to evaluate climate adaptation strategies and measure sustainability performance such as Life cycle assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Carbon Footprint
- Water Footprint, Multi-criteria assessment, Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA), EMergy Analysis, Cumulative Energy Demand (CED, Material Flow Accounting (MFA)
We engage in climate adaptation research across any contexts critical for people and environment safety, including land use planning, water landscapes management, circular economy initiatives, disaster risk reduction, and the development of resilient, inclusive, and smart communities. Our expertise supports both climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, addressing environmental accountability and the integration of climate priorities with economic development to increase the quality of work and life at personal, social and environmental levels. Through responsible research and innovation, we ensure that adaptation solutions are replicable, sustainable, and contribute to building stronger, more resilient societies across Europe.
Our cross-cutting approach merges social and hard sciences to deliver coherent, systemic, and participatory adaptation solutions. We employ evidence-based methods including climate scenario analysis, case studies, vulnerability mapping, and stakeholder collaboration to support adaptive capacity building at local, regional, and transnational scales. This methodology enables iterative learning and adjustment while promoting fairness and inclusion in adaptation processes.