Periodic Reporting for period 3 - REACHOUT (RESILIENCE IN EUROPE THROUGH ACTIVATING CITY HUBS REACHING OUT TO USERS WITH TRIPLE-A CLIMATE ADAPTATION TOOLS)
Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2025-03-31
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 3 until April 2025: A new digital platform and online marketplace was launched during this period for the REACHOUT toolkit (including climate stories and demonstrators), providing multiple entry points allowing users to navigate via guiding questions or moving directly to their tool or resource of choice (WP3). Climate stories for each city-hub have been finalized and handed over to the cities, confirming this method to be an effective communication tool (WP2). Upon the completion of the third co-development cycles, REACHOUT city-hubs and technical partners continued the tool applications begun in the first and second reporting periods, further developing and implementing tools into municipal processes (WP3). Some of these tools and their results have been transferred to the cities for continued use. In this period, partners looked closer to the action stage of the Triple-A approach. 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 final of the three learning modules was finalized and presetned to both consoritum and external audiences, further building climate knowledge in cities on topics such as the Triple-A toolkit and willingness to invest in climate services among cities (WP5). A final round of consultations was held among international and national partnets, networks and platforms to discuss the legacy of REACHOUT and the Triple-A toolkit. Two final Policy Briefs, one on business models for climate services and another on lessons learned and remaining needs for climate services in European cities were published, as was a final communications campaign sharing key REACHOUT insights (WP6).
The key output of the REACHOUT project is the Triple-A toolkit, covering tools for heat and different flood hazards, social vulnerability, tools for identifying opportunities for adaptation, selecting appropriate options, designing pathways and several ‘soft tools’ to build capacity for adaptation.
Now the project has been finalized, the toolkit is accessible for resilience officers, urban planners, consultants world-wide in a user friendly manner. The use of combinations of different tools, covering analysis, ambition setting and action planning for different adaptation policy questions has been presented in 6 demonstrators: i) support dealing with floods in a fast growing city; ii) facing the heat in large metropolitan urban environments; iii) Prioritizing locations to implement nature-based solutions; iv) approaches cities can use which are in their early stages of adaptation; v) How can just and resilient urban development be combined?; and vi) Climate risk assessments for institutional and real estate investors across Europe. Each demonstrator shows how tools and climate data can be applied to support these questions and presents lessons from the several city hubs Amsterdam, Cork, Logrono, Gdynia, Lillestrom, Milan and Athens.
The key output of the REACHOUT project is the Triple-A toolkit, covering tools for heat and different flood hazards, social vulnerability, tools for identifying opportunities for adaptation, selecting appropriate options, designing pathways and several ‘soft tools’ to build capacity for adaptation.
Now the project has been finalized, the toolkit is accessible for resilience officers, urban planners, consultants world-wide in a user friendly manner. The use of combinations of different tools, covering analysis, ambition setting and action planning for different adaptation policy questions has been presented in 6 demonstrators: i) support dealing with floods in a fast growing city; ii) facing the heat in large metropolitan urban environments; iii) Prioritizing locations to implement nature-based solutions; iv) approaches cities can use which are in their early stages of adaptation; v) How can just and resilient urban development be combined?; and vi) Climate risk assessments for institutional and real estate investors across Europe. Each demonstrator shows how tools and climate data can be applied to support these questions and presents lessons from the several city hubs Amsterdam, Cork, Logrono, Gdynia, Lillestrom, Milan and Athens.
The key output of the REACHOUT project is the Triple-A toolkit, covering tools for heat and different flood hazards, social vulnerability, tools for identifying opportunities for adaptation, selecting appropriate options, designing pathways and several ‘soft tools’ to build capacity for adaptation. The toolkit is accessible for resilience officers, urban planners, consultants world-wide in a user friendly manner. The design of this toolkit is distinct from other climate service portals. Especially noteworthy is the inclusion of the demonstrators of city solutions, showing how combinations of Triple-A tools have supported our cities in addressing common adaptation challenges.
Other novel learnings from the REACHOUT project include:
- consolidated understanding of what ambition-setting entails and how it adds value to the adaptation planning process in cities, formalized via a scientific publication in the journal Climate Services and implemented in the Triple-A toolkit
- further conceptualizing climate resilient development pathways (CRDP) for urban planning by developing and testing a novel methodology in both Cork and Logrono, also formalized in two scientific publications
- continued learnings regarding the intensive co-creation process between tool developers and city-hubs over three co-development cycles, including co-learning between cities and operational strucutres ensuring continuity
In brief we find that to effectively reach the "last mile" of climate services, we must work from both ends: a top-down approach driven by EU-level data infrastructure, and a bottom-up approach based on local and national data provision. The brokerage function (experts) is key in this process as well as the maturity of the cities capacity to utilize the outcomes of the climate services. Not only the services itself asks for co-development but also the triple-A process that they ought to support.
Other novel learnings from the REACHOUT project include:
- consolidated understanding of what ambition-setting entails and how it adds value to the adaptation planning process in cities, formalized via a scientific publication in the journal Climate Services and implemented in the Triple-A toolkit
- further conceptualizing climate resilient development pathways (CRDP) for urban planning by developing and testing a novel methodology in both Cork and Logrono, also formalized in two scientific publications
- continued learnings regarding the intensive co-creation process between tool developers and city-hubs over three co-development cycles, including co-learning between cities and operational strucutres ensuring continuity
In brief we find that to effectively reach the "last mile" of climate services, we must work from both ends: a top-down approach driven by EU-level data infrastructure, and a bottom-up approach based on local and national data provision. The brokerage function (experts) is key in this process as well as the maturity of the cities capacity to utilize the outcomes of the climate services. Not only the services itself asks for co-development but also the triple-A process that they ought to support.