the adapts approach

ADAPTS – empowering local communities

Climate change is increasing the severity, duration and frequency of extreme events. It causes gradual changes in temperature and rain patterns, threatening water availability and food security. The poor are particularly vulnerable to these changes as both water availability and water quality directly determine the potential for food production and ecosystem sustainability, and thus their livelihoods.

ADAPTS empowers communities to increase their resilience and play a key role in decision-making on adequate adaptation strategies.

The overall goal of ADAPTS is to increase developing countries’ adaptive capacities by achieving the inclusion of climate change and adaptation considerations in water policies, local planning and investment decisions.

Linking practice to policies
Key in the ADAPTS approach is the inclusion of local knowledge and action in knowledge development, and in policy discussions on how to climate proof water management.

People, government institutions and civil society organisations operating at the local level are the main groups experiencing the on the ground impacts of climate change, and some have already started developing adaptive responses. Thus, local actors are not only a stakeholder group that should participate in policy discussions out of their own interest, but are essential to these dialogues because of their relevant knowledge on local impacts and potential responses.

Linking science to experience
ADAPTS explicitly links scientific climate change information to empirical knowledge and on-going local (adaptation) activities, which both strengthens the value and applicability of the scientific information and empowers the local actors.

Scientific information is important for climate proofing local actions, for effective replication of adaptation measures in other areas, and to enhance the credibility of findings. This way, local knowledge and action are more easily accepted in national and international policy discussions on water management and climate change.