Development and application of good practice criteria for evaluating adaptation measures

Abstract

Decision-makers on different levels face an information deficit with regard to choosing promising adaptation measures. While the ever present concept of good practice may prove helpful in closing this gap, the term is often poorly defined. Therefore, this article attempts to substantiate the concept of good practice in climate change adaptation by developing a set of key criteria for evaluating adaptation measures. This potentially leads to sounder decision-making and a better transfer of experiences. By way of an extensive literature review, a variety of definitions and criteria for good practice in adaptation is revealed. Using predefined selection rules like non-redundancy, applicability, comprehensibility, completeness, and measurability, the identified criteria are condensed and then ranked by experts. This way, the article identifies six key evaluation criteria that should be considered when deciding whether an adaptation measure can be deemed good practice example or not. These are effectiveness, robustness, sustainability, financial feasibility, positive side effects, and flexibility. Subsequently, the set of criteria is illustrated by evaluating several good practice examples on the local level in Germany. Eventually, limits of the derived good practice criteria are discussed.