Adaptation to climate change means adjustment of human and natural systems to climatic actual or expected events, in order to minimize damage or maximize benefit. Adaptation implies involvement, coordination, and cooperation of different actors and sectors. Multi-actor collaboration usually characterizes the drafting of regional plans, which act as bridges between national and local administrative levels. Regional administrations address resilience issues, through spatial planning processes. This study focuses on the regional plans adopted by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (Italy), south European Mediterranean region, an area that will be negatively affected by climate change in the coming decades. We aim at proposing a method for scrutinizing regional plans related to spatial planning issues, by using criteria rooted in the scientific literature and adaptation strategies. We found out that (i) the scientific literature did not sufficiently address the role of regional plans in the context of adaptation to climate change and (ii) the method proposed and applied in this study highlights whether some key adaptation issues are included in the plans, and might make aware planners and policy makers of basic information concerning the interplay ‘regional planning vs. adaptation to climate change’.

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In the last decades green infrastructure planning, design, and management have been widely recognized as a way to contribute to reach higher levels of sustainability of development. However, often green infrastructures are considered in a sectoral way, while their design should be more integrated within comprehensive planning and design. The paper proposes the use of geodesign methods and technology to support the early phases of integrated strategic territorial planning, in order to enrich the relationships between the design of green infrastructure and of the other relevant systems via more comprehensive planning and design, and by applying systems thinking. A case study developed with architecture and engineering students under the umbrella of the International Geodesign Collaboration is used, to demonstrate how with intensive geodesign workshops it is possible to create spatially explicit design scenarios which take into account the relationships between green infrastructure and other territorial systems and dynamics. A set of analyses on the case study results of the two scales is used to demonstrate the assumption. It is also argued that geodesign intensive workshops can, in a very short time, contribute to raising the awareness among the participants of collaborative design to the importance of green infrastructure in strategic territorial planning.Sustainability 2020, 12, 1820 2 of 22 movement [4]. Connectivity and multi-functionality are considered key characteristics for the GI to remain resilient to change [1,5]. The first characteristic is related to the need of biotic functional groups to have not only high-quality living and restoration space (i.e., core areas), but also to be able to move across patches in order to support genetic diversity [6]. The second characteristic concerns the ability of a GI to perform several functions in the same spatial area related to the provision of a variety of Ecosystem Services (ESs), serving a range of functions for both nature and society.Due to its multi-sectorial nature, GI requires a holistic and cross-sectorial approach to spatial planning in order to both stimulating possible synergies and coordinating initiatives, and to avoid the consequent risk of conflicts between objectives related to different goals [1]. recognize the central role of GI in guiding the early stage of the planning process across the different levels (i.e., regional, municipal and project scale) and proposed a reform of the legal framework of landscape and urban planning at the Autonomous Region of Valencia by identifying a unique GI as an ecological-based tool to overcome fragmentation and to interconnect all the different policies concerning landscape protection. Over the last decades a wide range of GI projects have been carried out on local, regional, national and trans-boundary levels, highlighting the necessity for projects defined in different scales to be closely interconnected and coordinated in order to maximize the GI benefits.Green infrastructure can be reinforced through str...

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Current planning practices in Europe are affected by new regulations aiming at environmental protection and risk reduction, however, planning professionals often face difficulties in properly implementing the principles given by the norms. This paper discusses the influence of the introduction of Strategic Environmental Assessment and of Spatial Data Infrastructures in the EU, highlighting innovation potential and implementation shortcomings and pitfalls. To address these issues, the Geodesign approach is proposed, firstly analysing its relationships with the current planning regulations at the regional level in Italy, and then its opportunities for application in practice with regard to the Sardinian case study (Italy); secondly an integrated Planning Support System is proposed and tested to implement the core phases of the Geodesign approach. The paper concludes suggesting that Geodesign may fruitfully address some of the major issues in the current planning and SEA practice, taking full advantage of the newly available resources of SDI.