Climate Sensitivity Assessment at the Regional Scale for Spatial Planning: A Case Study in Italy

The aim of this research is the quantitative characterization of climate risk, in order to support spatial planners in choosing resilient adaptive actions at the urban and territorial scale. According to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate risk is the combination of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability parameters. Vulnerability is a function of the climate sensitivity and the adaptive capacity. From the planners’ point of view, climate sensitivity expresses the degree to which the study area is influenced by the climate variability. In this regard, the authors have implemented a GeoDataBase to quantify the climate sensitivity over a southern Italian region, analyzing long-term measured meteorological data (air temperature and precipitation) and subsequently generating synthetic maps by interpolating data. As a result, the authors present climate sensitivity maps of the Calabria region, providing useful physical and data-based identification of priority areas for planning purposes.