From Mapping to Action: ADAPT-TOOLS and What We Learn from the Mediterranean CCA Toolscape

Climate change adaptation (CCA) is supported by a rapidly expanding ecosystem of decision-support systems, risk and vulnerability assessments, data portals, guidance frameworks, and early-warning services. Yet selecting an appropriate tool for a specific decision context remains difficult because tool information is often fragmented, inconsistently described, and not searchable using the metadata that practitioners actually need (e.g., sector, scale, user group, methods, outputs, usability, cost, and geographic scope). Within the FutureMed COST Action, WG2 has compiled a structured inventory of Mediterranean-relevant CCA tools and developed a shared criteria systematization to describe who tools are intended to serve, what they support, and how they are applied in practice. Insights emerging from this collaborative effort highlight that availability is not the only challenge: tool–context alignment is frequently unclear, tools often operate in isolation with limited guidance for selection, and the way tools define their spatial applicability may follow administrative rather than physical boundaries. Multilingual support and pathways for incorporating local data and knowledge are uneven. These patterns motivate the need for an operational resource that makes tools legible, comparable, and easier to navigate for real-world use.

We present ADAPT-TOOLS, a live database and web platform that translates a fragmented inventory into actionable discovery through structured metadata and faceted exploration. Tools are organized using a harmonized taxonomy spanning several aspects: intended user groups (policy, local government, private sector, NGOs, academia), sector focus, tool type, political and physical target scales, temporal horizon and resolution, methodological approach, data utilization, output types, accessibility/usability, validation and reliability signals, cost and support characteristics, and geographic applicability. Users can combine filters (OR within filters, AND across filters) to rapidly narrow from broad categories to tools matching their constraints, while dedicated tool pages support transparent comparison and adoption.

Technically, the platform is implemented as a containerized stack with a relational backend and a web interface. A reproducible ingestion pipeline converts structured inventories into relational tables, enabling systematic updates and maintainable curation workflows. To support sustained evolution and community engagement, ADAPT-TOOLS includes a moderated “Suggest a Tool” workflow that collects structured submissions for review before integration, enabling continuous expansion while preserving data quality. The platform is publicly deployed at adapt-tools.org. By linking community mapping to an operational platform, ADAPT-TOOLS supports evidence-informed and more context-aware adaptation planning across the Mediterranean and beyond.

Acknowledgments

This study is based on work from COST Action CA22162 “FutureMed: A Transdisciplinary Network to Bridge Climate Science and Impacts on Society” (FutureMed), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).