Plan B:altic: A Social–Ecological Approach to Climate Change Adaptation

Abstract

This contribution elaborates on the transdisciplinary research approach employed in the project plan B:altic which facilitates integration of practitioners throughout the entire research process. The project aims to show possible ways of developing adaptation strategies to climate change, to discuss jointly the transdisciplinary research and solution approach and to offer practitioners innovative suggestions. This paper focuses especially on preliminary experiences with the use of resilience thinking as a conceptual bridge between different disciplines and knowledge areas involved in the research process. Besides obvious strengths of the resilience concept such as addressing uncertainty, complexity and transformational change, its practical use as a guiding principle for developing adaptation strategies evokes a number of concerns, yet first and foremost the question of operationalization.