This study presents the ClimEmpower framework, a user-driven approach to enhancing climate resilience across five climate-vulnerable regions in Southern Europe: Costa del Sol (Spain), Central Greece, the Troodos Mountains (Cyprus), Osijek-Baranja County (Croatia), and Sicily (Italy). The project employs a region-specific methodology that integrates climate risk assessments, stakeholder engagement through Communities of Practice (CoPs), and the development of innovative climate services tailored to local needs. These regions, characterized by unique environmental and socio-economic vulnerabilities, face shared hazards such as droughts, heatwaves, and floods, alongside region-specific challenges like salinization and biodiversity loss. ClimEmpower identifies critical gaps in high-resolution data, cross-sectoral collaboration, and capacity-building efforts, underscoring barriers to effective adaptation. This work aims to provide a foundational resource, offering a comprehensive overview of the current situation, including needs, gaps, priorities, and expectations across the target regions. By establishing this baseline, it facilitates future research and comparative analyses, contributing to the development of robust, region-specific resilience strategies. The ClimEmpower framework offers scalable and replicable solutions aligned with the European Green Deal’s climate resilience goals, advancing adaptation planning and providing actionable insights for broader European initiatives.

Las inundaciones representan una de las amenazas climáticas más significativas a nivel global, y se espera que sus impactos se verán agravados por el cambio climático. Las áreas urbanas y periurbanas son especialmente vulnerables a las inundaciones debido a su alta concentración de población y bienes expuestos. Además, las zonas costeras se enfrentan a un riesgo añadido por la interacción de procesos oceanográficos e hidrológicos, lo que favorece la ocurrencia de eventos compuestos de inundación. En España, episodios recientes como la DANA de Valencia en octubre de 2024 o el temporal Gloria en enero de 2020 han evidenciado la gravedad de estos fenómenos. Este trabajo quiere ofrecer una visión actualizada sobre la gestión de las inundaciones en España, con especial énfasis en las inundaciones pluviales (particularmente relevantes en entornos urbanos y costeros), pero sin omitir otros tipos de inundación, tratando los siguientes puntos clave: (1) examinar el marco legislativo vigente en esta materia, (2) identificar algunas brechas a superar en el estado actual del conocimiento y definir futuras líneas de investigación, (3) alentar la integración de los efectos del cambio climático, (4) ampliar el alcance de los estudios actuales, incluyendo las inundaciones urbanas pluviales y compuestas, (5) implementar la modelización de sedimentos y flotantes y (6) examinar el papel de los sistemas de alerta temprana para mejorar la respuesta ante situaciones de emergencia.

Este estudio se centra en la comparativa de diferentes programas de modelización hidrológica en una cuenca semiárida con el objetivo de proporcionar una evaluación de su desempeño en la simulación de procesos hidrológicos. Para ello, se han evaluado dos programas de modelización distribuida o de enfoque bidimensional (Iber y HEC-RAS), y un programa de modelización semidistribuida (HEC-HMS), considerando tres eventos lluvia registrados en la red de pluviómetros de la Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura y un evento sintético de período de retorno de 100 años. Adicionalmente, se ha evaluado el comportamiento de los modelos al someter el modelo digital del terreno a cambios para una mejor modelización de la realidad. Los resultados demuestran que, en general, el modelo Iber presenta mayor similitud de los caudales simulados con respecto a los aforados, y que las obstrucciones presentes en las cuencas analizadas, a gran escala no ejercen influencia remarcable en los resultados.

Southern European countries, particularly those in the Mediterranean region face a disproportionate impact from global warming due to their already hot and arid summer climates. These areas are increasingly experiencing extreme heatwaves, prolonged droughts, and severe fluvial and pluvial flooding, which often result in critical situations and cities struggling to cope with these challenges. In the European project ClimEmpower (climempower.eu), funded under the Horizon Europe program, we are collaborating with local stakeholders in five South-European regions strengthen their capacity to address these pressing climate-related challenges and build resilience for the future. Our primary goal is to support local authorities in addressing climate risks and improving their adaptive capacity. To achieve this, Communities of Practice (CoP) were established to enable knowledge exchange, identify regional needs, and co-create climate-resilient strategies. Using a transdisciplinary approach, we assessed data and climate services, engaged stakeholders to address key challenges, and identified critical gaps alongside methods to address them. A key focus was on developing and refining resilience indicators, ensuring they are actionable and meaningful for local adaptation efforts. Researchers collaborated closely with regional stakeholders through surveys, meetings, and CoP discussions to gather input, identify gaps, and tailor solutions. This partnership integrated scientific expertise with local knowledge and priorities, emphasizing the importance of indicator relevance over quantity. The study concluded that building stakeholder capacity and focusing on effective, context-specific indicators are essential for creating pathways to enhance climate resilience.

Global warming, which has accelerated significantly since 1970, is driving rapid and observable climate change (IPCC AR6 2023). Southern European countries, particularly those in the Mediterranean region, are disproportionately affected due to their already hot and dry summer climates, making them highly vulnerable to rising temperatures and altered precipitation patterns. Climate change exacerbate the situation, leading to more frequent extreme weather events and critical challenges such as heatwaves, droughts, and both fluvial and pluvial flooding.In the ClimEmpower project[1] [2], funded under the Horizon Europe program, five South-European regions characterized by high climate risk and low adaptive capacity were studied to strengthen climate resilience. To empower these regions, a comprehensive analysis of climate-related data, services, and resilience indicators was conducted and regional partners involved to understand their specific needs and primary climate-related challenges, and to identify critical gaps along with methodologies to address them. A key focus of this inter- and transdisciplinary approach was the development and study of resilience indicators, which are essential for assessing the current state of resilience in these regions and for monitoring progress towards improved resilience over time.This paper presents key findings from the comprehensive analysis of existing datasets and services related to climate hazards, impacts, exposure, and vulnerabilities, as well as gaps identified through collaboration with regional stakeholders. Additionally, an overview of climate change resilience indicators is provided which is based on an extensive analysis of approximately 500 indicators across climate, socio-economic, and governance domains. The analysis reveals an uneven distribution of indicators across different sectors, with a predominant focus on environmental, economic, and governance topics, while critical areas such as water and waste management, food security, and urban planning are notably underrepresented. Significant gaps between available data and indicators for representing region-specific needs were identified, highlighting the importance of prioritizing indicators that are meaningful and actionable for localized adaptation efforts.Concluding, the study demonstrates that not all indicators hold equal relevance across all regions and quality, and relevance should be prioritized over the sheer quantity of indicators. Thus, the emphasis should be placed on indicators with high significance and ability to support the development of region-specific pathways to enhance climate resilience in vulnerable South-European regions, ensuring that resources are directed toward the most critical areas of need. [1] Climempower.eu. ABOUT—ClimEMPOWER. 2023. Available online: https://climempower.eu/about/ (accessed on 9 January 2025). [2] Xekalakis, G.; Lopez, P.M.; Ruiz, M.A.; Tötzer, T.; Kaleta, P.; Karystinakis, K.; Moumtzidou, A.; Forjan, R.; Christou, P.; Anastasiou, C.; et al. User-Driven Climate Resilience Across Southern European Regions. Climate 2025, 13, 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli13010002

Coastal urban areas, particularly those in the Mediterranean coast, face an increasing probability of compound flooding into both current and projected climate change conditions (Bevacqua et al, 2019). In the Costa del Sol Occidental region of southern Spain, multi-hazard flood events—encompassing pluvial, coastal, and fluvial hazards—interact to produce significant impacts on populations, economies, and ecosystems. Research (IPCC, 2023; Zscheischler et al., 2018) highlights that the combined effects of multiple hazards on human and economic assets often exceed the sum of their individual impacts. This interplay results in greater flood depths and wider extents than those caused by single hazards occurring independently.Despite these challenges, there is a lack of understanding and comprehensive tools in the region that account for the interdependencies of these hazards, particularly the compounding effects of pluvial flooding combined with coastal hydrodynamics. The aim of this research is to fill this gap by developing a multi-hazard risk model that takes into account the interplay among pluvial flooding, coastal inundation, and the influence of ephemeral rivers in the region.This study is part of the EU-funded ClimEmpower project, which focuses on enhancing resilience in five Mediterranean regions that are highly vulnerable to climate risks. ClimEmpower aims to provide tools, datasets, and indicators to address climate risks, enabling stakeholders to make more informed decisions regarding climate adaptation strategies.The case study focuses on the Costa del Sol, a region located in the province of Málaga (Andalusia) in southern Spain. It encompasses 11 municipalities covering a total area of approximately 800 km2 and distributed along more than 100 km of coastline. The case of Costa del Sol will develop an integrated approach that combines 1D/2D sewer modeling (MIKE Urban) with coastal hydrodynamic simulations (MIKE Zero), addressing both pluvial and coastal flooding mechanisms under both present and future climate scenarios using a loosely-coupled approach. The research will also assess the probability of occurrence of compound flooding events and will update the IDF curves, which are crucial for designing urban drainage systems and planning flood mitigation measures. To achieve this, high-resolution pluviometric data (sub-hourly data) was requested to authorities such as Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the basin Authority and the Andalusian Environmental Information Network (REDIAM).A key challenge in this study regards data collection. Sewer network data is often incomplete or unavailable due to the management of different water utilities across the 11 municipalities of the study area. To overcome these data gaps, the study will apply a gap-filling methodology developed under the EU-funded ICARIA project (Moumtzidou et al., 2024). Additionally, the project will develop a social media crowdsourcing methodology to collect information about events that will be used to calibrate the models.This research is expected to provide local authorities with essential tools for flood risk management and climate adaptation, empowering them to design more resilient urban environments and flood management strategies to address increasing compound events.AKNOWLEDGMENTSThis research is part of the ClimEmpower project, funded by the Horizon Europe program of the European Union under Grant Agreement No.101112728 (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101112728/es).