Adaptation to climate change in the eastern regions of the Czech Republic: An analysis of the measures proposed by local governments

Manifestations of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent in Central Europe where many municipalities remain unprepared for upcoming challenging times. This study uses content analysis to better understand the response of spatial planning and strategic documents to climate change. We worked with a sample of towns situated in the eastern regions of the Czech Republic and employed the national classification of adaptation priority areas and related threats. Using the analysis we detected substantial differences in approaches employed in adaptation among individual towns. We also ascertained that the majority of towns studied have not yet formulated adaptation strategies and are unprepared for upcoming changes. At the same time, it is demonstrated that existing adaptation strategies have clearly supported and increased the extent of planned adaptation measures. Studied towns have focused their principal attention on water management as a key adaptation priority, and sufficient reflection has not been given to population health, agriculture, forestry and tourism. To this extent, the towns selected do not follow either national or European adaptation strategies and a rather path-dependent logic prevailed. We argue that more mobilization efforts and actions for tackling and adapting to climate change are urgently needed at the regional level so that currently isolated bottom-up and top-down approaches can be beneficially coordinated and harmonized.