Urban adaptation in Europe :What works? : implementing climate action in European cities

Average temperatures across Europe are rising faster than the global average, and Europe's cities are feeling the impacts of climate change more regularly and more severely. With the summer of 2023 breaking temperature records, the case for investing in societal resilience to climate change has never been clearer. The impacts of climate change can be even more intensely felt in urban areas due to their morphology and their dense infrastructure and population. Increased surface run-off during storms and heavy precipitation events makes urban areas particularly vulnerable to flooding. The urban heat island effect can also cause surface temperatures to be up to 10-15°C warmer in urban areas than their surroundings. Additional and growing risks in urban areas include water scarcity and reductions in water quality, the spread of infectious disease-carrying vectors, storms, wildfires, landslides, and coastal flooding due to sea level rise. The sectors reported to be most impacted by climate change in larger urban areas are water, buildings, health and transport. If smaller municipalities are taken into account, then there are also major impacts reported in the agriculture and forestry, environment and biodiversity, and civil protection and emergency sectors.