Adaptation to climate change in the Adriatic coastal cities, outdoor urban spaces measures for the short time scale.

Climate hazards can determine risks and exposure for the population, for economic activities, and the built environment and affect outdoor urban spaces frequently causing discomfort, unusability, or even damage, making the space potentially dangerous for a more or less extended amount of time. Considering the strategic function that these spaces have, with respect to the role they play in relation to the well-being of the city it is crucial to recognize measures that are able to identify readily implementable forms of adaptation. This paper stems from the ongoing Joint-Secap Interreg project, based on the analysis and the elaboration of specific data on local pilot areas of Italian and Croatian partners committed to adopting a joint Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan. The adoption, implementation, and absorption of the measures that are included in these plans within the local planning tools might require long application times. In the meantime, it is necessary to identify a prompt range of possible intervention types, a feasible connection, an the interface that enables operational measures between the large and the small time scale for the project’s pilot areas. By focusing on the analysis of case studies related to outdoor urban spaces affected by climate change, the paper builds a framework of operational small-scale, soft and technological possibilities defined according to the site’s morphological conformation, and to the vulnerability and climatic typologies. In particular, the analysis of those features that respond effectively to specific vulnerability factors will provide an application guideline not only for the pilot areas, but also for outdoor spaces in urban coastal territories with similar conditions.