Climate adaptation options have to journey. But they can not simply be copied and pasted.

Across Europe, many locations are grappling with completely different types of local weather stress, from an excessive amount of water to too little, alongside rising warmth and biodiversity loss. Faced with comparable pressures, it may be tempting to imagine the identical options will work all over the place. But profitable adaptation can’t merely be copied from one place to a different. Through the ARCADIA undertaking, Climate KIC is taking part in a key function in serving to areas study from one another whereas adapting these classes to native realities.

In 2022, extreme flooding hit communities round Karlovo in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv area, damaging villages and elevating tough questions on how one can rebuild whereas decreasing future threat. Four years later in April 2026, representatives from Plovdiv had been assembly friends from Lower Austria and Skåne to debate how Nature-based Solutions might kind a part of a longer-term response.

They explored floodplains and river corridors, however simply as importantly, the much less seen circumstances that decide whether or not Nature-based Solutions succeed – from the best way farmers and landowners are engaged to how establishments coordinate and planning programs reply. This was a part of ARCADIA’s twinning course of, a structured method to serving to European areas study from each other.

ARCADIA companions throughout a area go to to the River Maritsa in Plovdiv as a part of the April 2026 twinning trade.

From transferring options to studying collectively

Climate adaptation is commonly mentioned by way of scaling profitable options. But what works in a single place can’t mechanically be replicated someplace else. Technical design is just a part of the equation. Governance, finance, planning programs, land possession, institutional capability and relationships between stakeholders can all decide whether or not an thought succeeds. ARCADIA, subsequently, begins with a unique query,’What can we study from this expertise – and what would want to alter for it to work right here’?

During the primary part of twinning, Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Centru in Romania and Podravje in Slovenia had been paired with Model Regions elsewhere in Europe. Instead of simply showcasing good observe, companions recognized their very own challenges and studying wants earlier than exploring collectively what may be transferable.

Learning round actual issues

The April 2026 examine go to to Plovdiv reveals what this appears to be like like in observe. Lower Austrian companions shared expertise of working with farmers and landowners on inexperienced infrastructure comparable to hedgerows and ecological buffers. During the go to, it turned clear that technical options are unlikely to succeed with out understanding the motivations and desires of the individuals anticipated to implement them.

Partners from Skåne introduced expertise of stakeholder mapping, public-private collaboration and creating impartial areas the place authorities, landowners and civil society can develop options collectively. These concepts had been related to a sensible problem in Plovdiv, the place accountability for water administration, biodiversity, spatial planning and environmental safety is unfold throughout a number of establishments. The lesson was to not merely copy the Swedish or Austrian programs, however to ask what sorts of collaboration would work within the Bulgarian context.

That turned tangible throughout a go to to Karlovo and Slatina, one of many villages affected by the 2022 floods. Participants explored how Nature-based Solutions might complement engineered flood safety. By the tip of the go to, they’d recognized potential actions together with upstream water retention, river hall restoration and agroecological buffers – transferring from exchanging examples to contemplating modifications in actual municipal planning.

Participants look at native circumstances throughout the ARCADIA examine go to in Karlovo Municipality, the place discussions explored how Nature-based Solutions might help longer-term flood resilience.

Learning goes each methods

ARCADIA’s distinction between ‘Model’ and ‘Fellow’ Regions doesn’t imply experience travels in just one route. The trade between Centru in Romania and Emilia-Romagna in Italy is an effective instance.

Romanian companions had been significantly concerned with Emilia-Romagna’s method to financing ecosystem providers and modelling flood threat. In return, Emilia-Romagna wished to grasp Romania’s expertise of long-rotation forest administration. During the examine go to to Romania, individuals explored how forests can stay productive whereas additionally supporting biodiversity and local weather adaptation. The trade continued in June, when the Romanian delegation visited licensed public forests, the Ridracoli water system and an lively harvesting website to see how forest administration can steadiness ecological priorities with financial use and hydrogeological safety.

Partners discover forest administration in Romania throughout the Centru–Emilia-Romagna twinning trade in November 2025.

The level is necessary – locations will not be divided neatly into these with options and people who want them. Every area has data that could be invaluable elsewhere.

Designing studying, not simply visits

Of course, examine visits alone don’t assure helpful studying. As a part of Climate KIC’s contribution to ARCADIA, colleagues have supported areas all through the method, from making ready the exchanges and defining shared priorities to serving to individuals mirror on what they realized afterwards by means of ARCADIA’s Adaptation Journals.

Participants work by means of how classes from the trade could possibly be utilized in Plovdiv throughout the April 2026 examine go to.

That preparation issues as a result of it turns a go to from a tour of attention-grabbing initiatives right into a course of constructed round particular questions. And the follow-up is equally necessary. It asks individuals to contemplate what they noticed, and what they may do in another way in their very own context.

“In ARCADIA, success isn’t about how many visits we organise or how many people take part. It’s about whether regions strengthen their capacity to create and sustain change. That means designing learning around outcomes: involving the right people, understanding what enables or blocks implementation, and making space for unexpected insights. The goal is less about replicating a solution, but building the capacity to adapt it successfully to a new context.”

— Celsa Monros, ARCADIA Lead at Climate KIC

Helping good concepts journey

The lesson extends past ARCADIA. European areas have to adapt shortly and dealing in isolation dangers repeating errors and reinventing approaches which have already been examined elsewhere. But alternatively, sharing options doesn’t imply assuming they may work all over the place in the identical kind.

A extra helpful method is to ask why one thing labored within the first place and what would want to alter earlier than it might work elsewhere. Climate resilience relies on the answer, but additionally on the relationships and studying processes that permit good concepts to journey.

ARCADIA’s second twinning part continues till March 2027, giving taking part areas time to show these exchanges into observe. The actual take a look at for ARCADIA’s taking part areas is  whether or not they can flip what they’ve realized into one thing that works at dwelling, moderately than copy and paste the answer that labored elsewhere.

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