Crafting an integrated pathway of adaptation and mitigation for the city of Naples – Experience from the KNOWING project

At a time when reducing emissions is becoming more urgent, and when climate impacts are intensifying, European regions and cities are grappling with the double challenge of planning climate mitigation and adaptation. Project KNOWING investigated how state-of-the-art scientific methods can be leveraged to assist the design of future pathways that integrate mitigation and adaptation interventions in a rational way. We present here the results of this investigation for the city of Naples, focusing on the emerging climate risks: from compound pluvial and coastal flooding, and from heatwaves. Starting from a process of stakeholder consultation and from the local SECAP plans, we defined a set of desirable mitigation and adaptation interventions. This were then simulated through specific domain models, including models of regional and urban climate, marine waves, compound flooding, health impacts, transport, energy supply and energy demand, behaviour. In addition, a model of system dynamics was implemented, to represent the key local processes that are relevant for climate impacts, mitigation and adaptation. Based on the results of both modelling approaches, we designed a local pathway of integrated mitigation and adaptation, which can serve to inform planning in the near and distant future.