Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA)

Cost-benefit analysis, as an economic evaluation tool of public or private projects, has evolved significantly in the last 200 years following the developments in terms of economics, namely Environmental Economic, and developments in project analysis and public policy evaluation.

Decision-making for the purpose of adaptation to climate change typically involves multiple stakeholders, regions and sectors as well as multiple objectives related to the use of resources and perceived benefits. Standard cost–benefit analysis can be argued to take into account easily monetised effects only. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) embedded in participatory processes can therefore play an important role in defining the decision context and exploring stakeholders’ preferences.

Infrastructure for water, urban drainage and flood protection has a typical lifetime of 30–200 years and its continuing performance is very sensitive to climate change. Investment decisions for such systems are frequently based on state-of-the-art impact assessments using a specified climate change scenario in order to identify a singular optimal adaptive strategy. In a non-stationary world, however, it is risky and/or uneconomic to plan for just one climate change scenario as an average or best estimate, as is done with the use of the Predict-Then-Adapt method.

Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management Studies (CFRAMSs) and their product - Catchment Flood Risk Management Plans (CFRMPs) - are at the core of this new national policy for flood risk management and the strategy for its implementation. This policy is in line with international best practice and meets the requirements of the EU Floods Directive.

This study has the overall objective to make proposals for action for the implementation of the National Adaptation Strategy of the German federal government addressing finance and incentive structures. On that account, the current state of research on the economics of climate change and the adaptation to it is assessed, an overview on specific policy measures is given, and possible evaluation criteria of these instruments are created. By means of a illustrative multi-criterion analysis, specific instruments are evaluated.

This publication reports on the main findings the entire TOLERATE project, which was an integrated natural science – social science project for the assessment of climate changed induced changes of extreme weather events and their socialeconomic consequences at a regional level. It includes regional projections of changes in climate conditions in Finland, with special reference to (short) periods with extremely abundant and extreme scant precipitation respectively. Based on these projections changes in river flood risks are assessed for two water shed areas by means of hydrological models.

This work illustrates the preliminary findings of a participatory research process aimed at identifying responses for sustainable water management in a climate change perspective, in two river basins in Europe and Asia. The paper describes the methodology implemented through local workshops, aimed at eliciting and evaluating possible responses to flooding risk. Participatory workshops allowed for the identification of four categories of possible responses and a set of nine evaluation criteria, three for each of the three pillars of sustainable development.

The aim of this report was to identify the most appropriate measures on the EU level to address different threats. A final selection of measures to be assessed with a view to their costs and economic, social and environmental impacts was agreed at the first interim meeting with the Commission. Measures already part of EU wide assessment projects were no part of the assessment.

In 1999, the UNFCCC Secretariat took a first step towards disseminating information on methods and tools when it produced a report entitled Compendium of Decision Tools to Evaluate Strategies for Adaptation to Climate Change. Since then, the adaptation assessment process has changed considerably and in some ways grown more sophisticated. The UNFCCC Secretariat has subsequently updated the original compendium and broadened its scope.

Describes annotated guidelines for the preparation of national adaptation programmes of action