Climate change risk reduction requires cities to undertake urgent decisions. One of the principal obstacles that hinders effective decision making is insufficient spatial knowledge frameworks. Cities climate adaptation planning must become strategic to rethink and transform urban fabrics holistically. Contemporary urban planning should merge future threats with older and unsolved criticalities, like social inequities, urban conflicts and “drosscapes”. Retrofitting planning processes and redefining urban objectives requires the development of innovative spatial information frameworks. This paper proposes a combination of approaches to overcome knowledge production limits and to support climate adaptation planning. The research was undertaken in collaboration with the Metropolitan City of Venice and the Municipality of Venice, and required the production of a multi-risk climate atlas to support their future spatial planning efforts. The developed tool is a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), which aids adaptation actions and the coordination of strategies. The model recognises and assesses two climate impacts: Urban Heat Island and Flooding, representing the Metropolitan City of Venice (CMVE) as a case study in complexity. The model is composed from multiple assessment methodologies and maps both vulnerability and risk. The atlas links the morphological and functional conditions of urban fabrics and land use that triggers climate impacts. The atlas takes the exposure assessment of urban assets into account, using this parameter to describe local economies and social services, and map the uneven distribution of impacts. The resulting tool is therefore a replicable and scalable mapping assessment able to mediate between metropolitan and local level planning systems.

Land–sea interaction dynamics are physiologically regulated by an exchange of matter (and energy) between the anthropic system and the natural environment. Therefore, the appropriate management of land–sea interaction (LSI)contexts should base on those planning approaches which can holistically support coastal development, such as Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) and Climate Adaptation Planning (CAP). One of the main limiting factors for this integration is the fragmentation of existing databases and information sources, which compose the territorial knowledge framework. Investigations have sought to address the representation and assessment of “wicked” and interconnected coastal problems. The present research focuses on the production of the necessary information to fill sectorial knowledge gaps and to merge the available data into a single framework. The research methodology is based on remote sensing assessment techniques and is designed to be replicated in other coastal areas to integrate CAP and MSP. The output maps are a result of the empirical application of the integration of the assessment techniques and are meant to support local decision-making processes. The result aims at illustrating and highlighting the relationships between climate change impact vulnerabilities their spatial relation to marine resources and maritime activities. This can support effective actions aimed at environmental and urban protection, the organization of the uses of the sea and adaptation to climate impacts. The application of the assessment techniques is developed on a case study in the north Adriatic Basin. The Gulf of Trieste constitutes a representative case study for the Mediterranean Basin due to its transboundary nature. The relationship and the ongoing projects between Slovenia and Italy make the case study an interesting context in which to test and train the proposed integrated planning approach. Therefore, the study investigates local vulnerability to climate impacts, i.e., Urban Heat Island (UHI) and urban runoff, and the existing relationship between the urban fabrics and the marine environment.

Urban planning for adaptation to Climate Change (CC) requires cognitive frameworks developed through the use of new spatial technologies and open-source databases. The significant and most innovative aspect concerns the use of these technologies to monitor and assess the degree of resilience to CC under conditions of vulnerability and risk. Based on these premises, this paper explores a new methodology for the analysis of climate vulnerability, exposure, and risk through multicriteria assessment techniques, testing its validity in the case study of the coastal municipality of Jesolo, Venice (Italy). The paper considers three main weather-climate impacts (Urban Flooding, Coastal Flooding, and Urban Heat Island). The methodology identifies georeferenced data that can better describe the multi-impact overlap. In a second step, the research identifies criteria characterized by multi-attributes and spatializes the analysis in a GIS environment. In a third stage, intersectoral and multilevel vulnerability conditions are combined on different spatial scales. The analysis methodology is based on open source data (from Open Street Map) to build local exposure information layers. Exposure combined with spatial vulnerability conditions allows the generation of multi-hazard mapping. Testing a spatial multi-hazard climate assessment can guide planning and public decision-making by directing adaptation actions. This approach operationally supports local governments in implementing Climate Adaptation Planning (CAP) by updating and integrating spatial planning, management, and regulatory models. The research process presented aims to activate stakeholder engagement processes within municipalities to discuss the actual perceived risk. In this sense, the tool allows supporting mainstreaming processes with citizens to identify best practices and solutions to be adopted in the areas indicated by risk mapping.