Forms for: Adapting to Climate Change through Territorial Strategies!
F:ACTS! means ‘Forms for: Adapting to Climate change through Territorial Strategies’. Climate change and its predictable effects in terms of natural hazards offer a big challenge for policy makers at regional and local level that deal with integrated territorial approaches. The big gap between the increasing body of scientific research and the concrete and necessary preparation at regional and local level is the main rationale for F:ACTS! It brings together a partnership of 14 organisations, many of them experienced and committed to interregional learning and developing. All of the partners have the competence to carry out, support or innovate in the field of integrated territorial development and all have the urgent task to anticipate on climate change. The discussion about climate change has surpassed its theoretical / hypothetical level. The partnership considers the developments as ‘FACTS’ and it will look very structured and creatively F(or concrete):ACT(ion)S!
F:ACTS! is focused on risk prone areas that lack resilience to respond to and recover from extreme weather. Prevention of hazards often has a spatial dimension touching functions and land use structures. Examples are; creating room to prevent flooding, improving access, zoning and managing of forests to reduce risks of wild fires, creating climate buffers around vulnerable natural areas to mitigate effects of extreme weather on valuable ecosystems. Regional and local governments are not well prepared to use integrated territorial strategies for adapting to climate change. Such strategies aim to make room for new land use functions, to rearrange ownership and use and to convert areas into these new functions. Territorial strategies are sometimes misunderstood to be the same as spatial planning. Territorial strategies in F:ACTS! context is a pro-active implementation oriented package of interventions in which governments and private parties work together in active stakeholder approaches.
F:ACTS! is a partnership of regions across Europe. It contains a mix of organisations dealing with policy making, implementation and innovation at relevant government levels. Via review, study visits, thematic workshops and identification of good practice, the stage is set for concrete work in pilot areas. The pilots - in tune with a well-planned dissemination approach - will deliver important outcome for policy makers and practitioners and it will facilitate active transfer of approaches. F:ACTS! will deliver useful accessible documents, a handbook and recommendations for policy makers. All of this will strengthen the implementation capacity, it will lead to increased awareness among experts and policy makers to act and it will deliver more effective territorial development approaches at regional and local level. 