This book chapter provides an overview of climate change adaptation across Europe, from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective, drawing on key findings from case study-based research on local climate change impacts and adaptation solutions, including an analysis of participatory, economic, and sociopolitical approaches, methodologies, and tools. Ecologic Institute's Jenny Tröltzsch contributed to this chapter.

This chapter is part of the book: Adapting to Climate Change in Europe: Exploring Sustainable Pathways - From Local Measures to Wider Policies which is a scientific synthesis of the four-year project: Bottom-Up Climate Adaptation Strategies for a Sustainable Europe (BASE) on adaptation activities in Europe. It combines scientific assessments with real-world case descriptions to present specific tools and methods. This book aims at ensuring sustainable solutions in adaptation to climate change.

Structured in six sections, this chapter builds upon a set of analytical discussions regarding: the diversity of climate change impacts and adaptation solutions at the local level; the role of participatory methods and approaches; the results of economic evaluation methods and models applied to local case studies; a framework for identifying best practices and characterizing the key barriers and opportunities for implementing local strategies and plans; and a set of robust guidelines and evaluation criteria for climate change adaptation measures. Key findings highlight the intricacies of local-level adaptation utilizing robust examples from case studies across European regions, and provide a comprehensive analysis of local strategies and plans, from a multilevel, multiactor, and multiscale perspective. The chapter also discusses and presents a set of methodological approaches that can be applied to facilitate local-level adaptation while also providing an analytical framework for comparing and evaluating local climate change adaptation.