Abstract
The global impacts of climate change, particularly in mountainous regions like South Tyrol, highlight the urgent need for adaptation. This area is already experiencing above-average warming and more frequent and intense extreme events.
Consequently, in addition to mitigation strategies, it is necessary to plan and implement climate change adaptation measures, particularly through the enhancement of the local adaptive capacity of the highly exposed Alpine regions. This refers to the ability of systems, institutions, humans, and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences.
In our contribution, we present the application of a transdisciplinary approach to two sectors within the INTERREG Alpine Space project ADAPTNOW, which aimed at co-designing and implementing targeted, robust and action-oriented adaptation measures in the fields of tourism and forestry in the pilot region Pustertal. We highlight the need to conduct an analysis of stakeholders, responsibilities and governance processes in the respective region, a subsequent assessment of the climatic and socio-economic status quo as a starting point for further actions, and the joint planning of measures to address identified, regionally relevant climate risks. Particular emphasis is paid to challenges, barriers, success factors and solutions for the codevelopment and co-implementation of effective adaptation measures. These aspects will be discussed in the light of the two case studies which were co-designed in different ways according to the sectorial needs, governance structures, and varying adaptive capacities.