Environment: CoCliCo, the first climate service for Europe, is launched

High-definition maps, real-time data and a focus on coastal areas most at risk of flooding. Providing this picture is the first pan-European climate service developed as part of the European CoCliCo (Coastal Climate Core Service) project and also involving the Italian research agency Enea, which provides sea-level rise inundation maps for the entire Mediterranean and Black Sea area, elaborated using an 'innovative' Mediterranean-scale model for very high-resolution climate projections down to 70 metres in the Straits of Gibraltar and the Dardanelles.

With sea levels set to rise by at least 40 centimetres by 2100, this tool will allow us to develop scenarios for public bodies and managers of critical infrastructures (ports, road networks and railways), so as to develop climate change adaptation strategies and related territorial planning for the protection of the population and essential services," says Gianmaria Sannino, the project's Italian contact person and head of ENEA's Climate Change and Air Quality Division, Observations and Scenarios. This tool is also able to simulate as realistically as possible the exchange of water and heat between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean and between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and also to effectively represent tides and their interaction with sea currents".

In several European contexts, the service has already been tested. For it to be fully operational, 'further technological developments' will be 'necessary', but, as the project's latest policy brief points out, 'financial resources' will be required. Possible solutions include integrating the CoCliCo climate service into the EU's Copernicus programme and the Digital Ocean Twin project. "The latter project uses observational data, numerical models, and intelligence technologies to gain a better understanding of the impact of climate change on the oceans, given that the oceans absorb about 90 per cent of the total excess heat generated by anthropogenic climate change," he argues. In the report, we send a clear message: coastal areas are under pressure from climate change. To safeguard the integrity of the territory and ensure opportunities for economic growth and well-being, we need transformative adaptation strategies, i.e. deep and structural responses to the impacts of climate change".

Not only that, the ENEA researcher also adds that 'unlike conventional adaptation, which is limited to making gradual changes to reduce risks, transformative adaptation aims to radically rethink social, economic and environmental systems to make them more resilient and sustainable in the long term. For example, in coastal areas subject to sea-level rise, building dikes or barriers may not be enough: in some cases, it may become inevitable to relocate entire communities'. There is also another aspect that is highlighted, and it concerns coastal areas that due to the high anthropic pressure (from tourism to urbanisation) may require 'deep transformations to avoid flood risks that are bound to increase . "Solutions exist, as demonstrated by this advanced prototype of a climate service, which informs a wide range of users (European, national and local authorities and managers of critical infrastructures) about flood risks," the expert concludes, "and could also offer customised services to meet the needs of individual territories.