EPOC - Establishment of a local policy of adaptation to climate change: creation of an extramural observatory (2014)

Summary:

Policies for adapting to climate change aim to improve societies' ability to respond to climate and energy constraints to make them less vulnerable.

However, actions taken are generally limited to efforts to raise awareness, resulting in normative top-down policies. The notion of territory is therefore rarely taken into account.

The goal of this project is to contribute to establishing an adaptation policy targeting local vulnerability. In the framework of its Climate Plan, Grand Lyon has observed that climate change could be at the origin of the amplification of risks such as heatwave. The number of days of heatwave could thus be multiplied by 3.5 to 5 in the Lyon agglomeration by 2080

To propose a targeted adaptation policy that can address policy-makers' concerns, the scientific programme begun plans to establish an interdisciplinary urban observation system to unite research efforts, leverage data and foster sharing.

Establishing this observation system requires a prior inventory of scientific skills and a summary of knowledge on research already accomplished, along with an analysis of processes begun by practitioners. The goal is to involve both managers and researchers in order to pool synergies and establish a think tank that could be integrated into a research-action approach over the long term.