Change We Care

The Adriatic Sea (NE Mediterranean basin) is characterised by a heterogeneous variety of coastal systems, affected by strong anthropic pressure, and by different physical, morphodynamical and ecological forcings, mutable under the effects of climate change. The Adriatic coastal landscape ranges from low-lying alluvial beaches prone to flooding and erosion and deltaic areas undergoing loss of habitats and biodiversity, to coastal lakes and free-surface aquifers facing salinization issues, all involving a broad spectrum of physical, geomorphological and ecological processes tightly connected in complex interactions.

This condition makes the Adriatic Sea an ideal site for developing and testing concerted strategies for a multi-disciplinary assessment of the present conditions and expected scenarios in climate change conditions, as well as coordinated adaptations actions, at a transboundary level. This is the goal of CHANGE WE CARE (Climate cHallenges on coAstal and traNsitional chanGing arEas: WEaving a Cross-Adriatic Response), a funded by the EU Interreg Italy-Croatia Programme with an overall budget of 2.7 M€, involving 11 scientific and administrative partners from the two countries in the cooperation area for thirty month overall duration.

CHANGE WE CARE fosters the implementation of policy instruments at different scales. In particular, this project tackles the risks affecting coastal and transitional systems in the Adriatic Sea and related to the expected effects of climate change, with a focus on the implications on meteo-marine climate, hydrological regimes, salt intrusion, tourism, biodiversity and land use, aiming at the formulation of integrated and shared planning options for decision makers and coastal communities.

The variability of possible geomorphological and ecological settings, physical drivers and threats determining coastal vulnerability in the cooperation area is represented by five paradigmatic pilot sites in which a set of climate change adaptation/management plans will be defined. The pilot sites include two major river deltas (Neretva and Po, respectively on the Croatian and the Italian coasts), a river-bay system (Jadro River and Kastela Bay, Croatia), a coastal lake (Vransko Jezero Nature Park, Croatia), and a large sand bank system (Banco della Mula di Muggia, Italy).

Their representativeness of the Adriatic coastal landscape will enable the transfer of successful methods of analysis, development and implementation of adaptation measures to other systems facing different modulations of similar problems at the cross-border scale. Some of these pilot sites are placed in Protected Areas where adaptation/management plans should primarily consider actions aimed at environmental protection and biodiversity conservation.

Video project's activities (I part - II part)

Video pilot site of Banco della Mula di Muggia

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