Mapping deficit areas for adaptation planning. Insights from flood protection ecosystem service in an Italian case study

General introduction to frame the context of the proposed research: Floods are the costlier natural disaster in Europe in terms of human and economic losses. Climate change and increasing land take will worsen their effects, leading to cumulative impacts such as climate migration, health risks, and habitat destruction. To overcome these challenges, institutions should adopt integrated long-term climate mitigation and adaptation policies. One promising approach is to use ecosystem services (ES) to rethink, rebuild and ensure equitable access to the resilience of cities and territories. It represents an inclusive and interdisciplinary approach since it considers various values, perspectives, objectives, and knowledge domains. However, some barriers limit the integration of ES into spatial plans, such as the science-policy interface gap and a lack of understanding of the concept among policymakers. Objectives of the proposed research: This research aims to guide the construction of ES-based adaptation policies, with the final objective of sustainably managing the complexity of cities and territories against turbulence. To this end, it provides a user-friendly, multi-scalar GIS-based methodology to support decision-makers in identifying areas with a deficit of ES in response to flooding, i.e. where ES supply does not meet the demand. Results of the proposed research: The results include (i) an approach that can be replicated in other contexts and at different scales of intervention, (ii) insights from the application on an Italian case study, and (iii) considerations on the usefulness of ES for adaptive planning.