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Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) is a practical way to create and establish a more rational organisation of the use of marine space and the interactions between its uses, to balance demands for development with the need to protect marine ecosystems, and to achieve social and economic objectives in an open and planned way (Ehler and Douvere, 2009). The so-called “Blue Economy” in the Adriatic and Ionian Region (AIR) generates an annual turnover that exceeds €21 billion, with an increasing growth trend. An effective spatial planning is an essential condition in order to guarantee a long-lasting development ensuring a sustainable use of marine resources for future generations. This is particularly true in areas such as the Adriatic-Ionian Region, where several uses are competing for the same space and the same resources and where the transboundary dimension needs to be taken into account for the best regulation of those uses. MSP is also an opportunity to connect the marine and the maritime world, essential components of Blue Growth. While an extended presentation of ADRIPLAN results is contained in the ADRIPLAN Final Report “Developing a Maritime Spatial Plan for the Adriatic Ionian Region”, this booklet intends to summarise key findings of ADRIPLAN (chapters 3 and 4) and to be a short manual, or at least a vademecum (actually a commented checklist – chapter 5), for those who, at different levels and with different responsibilities, are or will be involved in the elaboration and implementation of spatial plans in the AIR. It is meant to be applied in general to the process of developing MSP plans and to single projects dealing with specific aspects of the MSP process. This Report takes direct inspiration from the TPEA Report “TPEA Good Practice Guide” (Jay and Gee, 2014), for which we thank the Editors and all the Authors.

Climate change confronts human society with a variety of new challenges. Among the various hazards in prospective scenarios, there is an increasing pressure on soil due to climatic variations, effects and impacts. This paper offers a perspective in the debate about science-policy-practice interface, about climate change and emerging hazards, analyzing a 50 years’ time-series of the Marche Region’s (central Italy) meteorological data and perception data. The analysis of meteorological data highlights a significant increasing trend in temperature both annually and seasonally, and a significant decreasing trend in daily precipitation in all seasons except autumn, which are causing a reduction in soil water availability. Moreover an historical analysis on the number of the regional landslides shows an increasing trend in the number of shallow landslides in the last 30 years. The perception data where obtained through the analysis of approximately 800 questionnaires carried out in the Marche Region in May–June 2011 to residents, policy makers and emergency managers. The analysis of questionnaires revealed a high awareness of climate change and apprehension about it causes and possible effects. Moreover the analysis highlights a differentiated concern about the increase in the number of landslides and their socio-economic impacts among the three groups. This could be due to an ineffective information exchange among scientific community, public administration, emergency managers and citizens. Therefore, we suggest that the “brokerage” role of the Civil Protection Agency in the information exchange process should be increased.