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Gray literature is increasingly considered to complement evidence and knowledge from peer-reviewed literature for science-policy processes and applied research. On the one hand, science-policy assessments need to both consider a diversity of worldviews, knowledge types and values from a variety of sectors and actor groups, and synthesize policy-relevant findings that are salient, legitimate and credible. On the other hand, practitioners and scholars conducting applied research, especially in environmental and health-related fields, are affected by the time lag and documented biases of academic publication processes. While gray literature holds diverse perspectives that need to be integrated in science-policy processes as well as practical evidence unfiltered by commercial publication processes, its heterogeneity has made it challenging to access through conventional means for a literature review. This paper details one endeavor within the Values Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) to review gray literature using Google’s Programmable Search Engine. In the absence of a standardized approach, we build on a limited experiential knowledge base for reviewing gray literature and report on the potential applicability of our strategy for future reviews. Our results contrast the findings of our parallel review of academic literature, underlining the importance of mobilizing different knowledge bases in science-policy assessments, evidence-based practices, and applied research.

Reversing the alarming trend of rising food insecurity requires transformations towards just, sustainable and healthy food systems with an explicit focus on the most vulnerable and fragile regions.

Reaching sustainable and just futures for people and nature requires tackling complex social-ecological challenges across multiple scales, from local to global. Pathways towards such futures are largely driven by people’s decisions and actions, underpinned by multiple types of motivations and values. Thus, understanding the link between potential futures and the values underpinning them represents a key question of current sustainability research, recently embraced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Particularly the understanding of causal chains leading from values to futures across different contexts and scales is vital to identify which sustainability pathways to collectively pursue. In this study, we build on a transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation process in an array of local case studies in protected areas in the Czechia (Central Europe). We apply the Life Framework of Values and the Three Horizons framework in an innovative value-based participatory scenario building process to explore the relationships between (1) multiple types of values, (2) actions taken by different types of stakeholders, and (3) their potential impacts on nature, nature’s contributions to people (including ecosystem services) and good quality of life. The resulting local-scale value-based pathways show the complex relationship between multiple types of values for nature and potential future trajectories. Finally, we reflect on the utility of value-based participatory scenario planning as a means to strengthen sustainable governance. We highlight that if participatory deliberation of values is to support decision-making processes, its design needs to carefully reflect local context and institutional set-up.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include social and ecological goals for humanity. Navigating towards reaching the goals requires the systematic inclusion of perspectives from a diversity of voices. Yet, the development of global sustainability pathways often lacks perspectives from the Global South. To help fill this gap, this paper introduces a participatory approach for visioning and exploring sustainable futures - the Three Horizons for the Sustainable Development Goals (3H4SDG). 3H4SDG facilitates explorations of (a) systemic pathways to reach the SDGs in an integrated way, and (b) highlights convergences and divergences between the pathways. We illustrate the application of 3H4SDG in a facilitated dialogue bringing together participants from four sub-regions of Africa: West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa. The dialogue focused on food and agricultural systems transformations. The case study results incorporate a set of convergences and divergences in relation to the future of urbanization, population growth, consumption, and the role of agriculture in the African economy. These were subsequently compared with the perspectives in global sustainability pathways, including the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). The study illustrates that participatory approaches that are systemic and highlight divergent perspectives represent a promising way to link local aspirations with global goals.

Projecting the distribution of population is critical in supporting analysis of the impacts and risks associated with climate change. In this paper, we apply a computational algorithm parameterised for the UK Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (UK-SSP) narratives to create 1-km gridded urban land use and population projections for the UK to the end of the twenty-first century. Using a unimodal neighbourhood function, we model heterogeneity in urban sprawl patterns. The urban land use maps are used as weights to create downscaled population projections. We undertake a model uncertainty analysis using 500 simulations with varying parameter settings per UK-SSP. Results illustrate how sprawl can emerge from scenario conditions even when population numbers decline, and irrespective of socio-economic wellbeing. To avoid negative environmental externalities associated with uncontrolled sprawl, such as in UK-SSP5 and UK-SSP3, planning policies will be vital. Uncertainties about future population development in the UK are higher in rural areas than in urban areas. This has an effect on the competition for land and influences confidence in projections of broader land system change.

Future provision of ecosystem services (ES) has been increasingly analysed through the scenario approach to address uncertainties and to communicate them to stakeholders and decision-makers. Multiple uncertainty-related aspects of the scenario approach have been discussed in the literature, e.g. how uncertainty is accounted for in ES modelling processes. However, this contribution aims to address another uncertainty-related aspect of scenario analysis, exploring the relationship between the diversity of qualitative scenario narratives on the one hand and the diversity of their respective quantitative outcomes on the other. We build on a local-scale case study and present a semi-quantitative approach to compare scenario narratives and outcomes, based on participatory scenario planning and ES modelling. Our results show that different scenario narratives may lead to similar levels of modelled ES provision, and vice versa, that similar narratives may result in contrasting scenario outcomes. We use these findings to derive uncertainty-related insights, and discuss how these can help formulate landscape management decisions, resulting in desirable ES outcomes across a range of plausible futures. Finally, we discuss the need to apply both spatial and aspatial approaches to compare the convergence of scenario outcomes, and the implications for potential interpretation of the results by stakeholders and decision-makers.

Despite increasing scientific understanding of the global environmental crisis, we struggle to adopt the policies science suggests would be effective. One of the reasons for that is the lack of inclusive engagement and dialogue among a wide range of different actors. Furthermore, there is a lack of consideration of differences between languages, worldviews and cultures. In this paper, we propose that engagement across the science-policy interface can be strengthened by being mindful of the breadth and depth of the diverse human-nature relations found around the globe. By examining diverse conceptualizations of ?nature? in more than 60 languages, we identify three clusters: inclusive conceptualizations where humans are viewed as an integral component of nature; non-inclusive conceptualizations where humans are separate from nature; and deifying conceptualizations where nature is understood and experienced within a spiritual dimension. Considering and respecting this rich repertoire of ways of describing, thinking about and relating to nature can help us communicate in ways that resonate across cultures and worldviews. This repertoire also provides a resource we can draw on when defining policies and sustainability scenarios for the future, offering opportunities for finding solutions to global environmental challenges. Fil: Coscieme, Luca. Trinity College Dublin; Irlanda Fil: da Silva Hyldmo, Håkon. Norwegian Environment Agency; Noruega Fil: Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro. Helsingin Yliopisto; Finlandia Fil: Palomo, Ignacio. Bc3 Basque Centre For Climate Change; España Fil: Mwampamba, Tuyeni H.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; México Fil: Selomane, Odirilwe. Stockholms Universitet; Suecia Fil: Sitas, Nadia. Stockholms Universitet; Suecia Fil: Jaureguiberry, Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentina Fil: Takahashi, Yasuo. Institute for Global Environmental Strategies; Japón Fil: Lim, Michelle. University of Adelaide; Australia Fil: Barral, María Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Innovación Para la Producción Agropecuaria y El Desarrollo Sostenible. - Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Buenos Aires Sur. Estacion Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce. Instituto de Innovación Para la Producción Agropecuaria y El Desarrollo Sostenible.; Argentina Fil: Farinaci, Juliana S.. National Institute For Space Research; Brasil Fil: Diaz-José, Julio. Tecnológico Nacional de México; México Fil: Ghosh, Sonali. Wild life Institute of India; India Fil: Ojino, Joyce. international Institute of Industrial Environmental Economics; Suecia Fil: Alassaf, Amani. The University of Jordan; Jordania Fil: Baatuuwie, Bernard N.. University for Development Studies; Ghana Fil: Balint, Lenke. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; Reino Unido Fil: Basher, Zeenatul. Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability; Estados Unidos Fil: Boeraeve, Fanny. Research unit Biodiversity and Landscape; Bélgica Fil: Budiharta, Sugeng. Indonesian Institute of Sciences; India Fil: Chen, Ruishan. East China Normal University; China Fil: Desrousseaux, Maylis. Envrionmental Law Institute; Francia Fil: Dowo, Gregory. Department of Applied Biosciences and Biotechnolog; Zimbabue Fil: Febria, Catherine. University of Canterbury; Nueva Zelanda Fil: Ghazi, Houda. Cadi Ayyad University; Marruecos Fil: Harmáčková, Zuzana V.. Czech Academy of Sciences; República Checa Fil: Jaffe, Rodolfo. Instituto Tecnológico Vale; Brasil Fil: Kalemba, Mphatso M.. Environmental Affairs Department; Malaui Fil: Lambini, Cosmas K.. Bayreuth University; Alemania Fil: Lasmana, Felicia P.S.. HCV Resource Network; Reino Unido Fil: Mohamed, Assem A. A.. Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate; Egipto Fil: Niamir, Aidin. Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center; Alemania Fil: Pliscoff Varas, Patricio Andrés. Universidad Católica de Chile; Chile Fil: Sabyrbekov, Rahat. American University of Central Asia; Kirguistán Fil: Shrestha, Uttam B.. University of Southern Queensland; Australia Fil: Samakov, Aibek. Aigine Cultural Research Center; Kirguistán Fil: Sidorovich, Anna A.. ScientificandPracticalCenterforBioresourcesoftheNationalAcademyofSciencesofBelarus; Bielorrusia Fil: Thompson, Laura. U.S. Geological Survey; Estados Unidos Fil: Valle, Mireia. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis; Estados Unidos

The United Nations 2030 Agenda catalysed the development of global target-seeking sustainability-oriented scenarios representing alternative pathways to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Implementing the SDGs requires connected actions across local, national, regional, and global levels; thus, target-seeking scenarios need to reflect alternative options and tensions across those scales. We argue that the design of global sustainability-oriented target-seeking scenarios requires a consistent process for capturing multiple and contrasting perspectives on how to reach the goals, including the perspectives from multiple scales (e.g. local, national, regional) and geographic regions (e.g. the Global South). Here we propose a novel approach to co-design global target-seeking scenarios, consisting of (a) capturing global perspectives on pathways to the SDGs through a review of existing global scenarios; (b) a multi-stakeholder process to obtain multiple sub-global perspectives on pathways to sustainability; (c) an analysis of convergences, and crucially, divergences between global and regional perspectives on pathways to reach the SDGs, feeding into the design of new target-seeking scenario narratives. As a case study, we use the results of the 2018 African Dialogue on The World in 2050, discussing the future of agriculture and food systems. The identified divergent themes emerging from our analysis included urbanization, population growth, agricultural practices, and the roles of different actors in the future of agriculture. The results challenge some of the existing underlying assumptions of the current sustainability-oriented global scenarios (e.g. population growth, urbanisation, agricultural practices), indicating the relevance and timeliness of the proposed approach. We suggest that similar approaches can be replicated in other contexts to better inform the process of sustainability-oriented scenario co-design across scales, regions and cultures. In addition, we highlight the implications of the approach for scenario quantification and the evolution of modeling tools.

Scenarios are a useful tool to explore possible futures of social-ecological systems. The number of scenarios has increased dramatically over recent decades, with a large diversity in temporal and spatial scales, purposes, themes, development methods, and content. Scenario archetypes generically describe future developments and can be useful in meaningfully classifying scenarios, structuring and summarizing the overwhelming amount of information, and enabling scientific outputs to more effectively interface with decision-making frameworks. The Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) faced this challenge and used scenario archetypes in its assessment of future interactions between nature and society. We describe the use of scenario archetypes in the IPBES Regional Assessment of Europe and Central Asia. Six scenario archetypes for the region are described in terms of their driver assumptions and impacts on nature (including biodiversity) and its contributions to people (including ecosystem services): Business-as-usual, economic optimism, regional competition, regional sustainability, global sustainable development, and inequality. The analysis shows that trade-offs between nature’s contributions to people are projected under different scenario archetypes. However, the means of resolving these trade-offs depend on differing political and societal value judgements within each scenario archetype. Scenarios that include proactive decision making on environmental issues, environmental management approaches that support multifunctionality, and mainstreaming environmental issues across sectors, are generally more successful in mitigating tradeoffs than isolated environmental policies. Furthermore, those scenario archetypes that focus on achieving a balanced supply of nature’s contributions to people and that incorporate a diversity of values are estimated to achieve more policy goals and targets, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi targets. The scenario archetypes approach is shown to be helpful in supporting science-policy dialogue for proactive decision making that anticipates change, mitigates undesirable trade-offs, and fosters societal transformation in pursuit of sustainable development, The authors are grateful to the IPBES Europe and Central Asia Expert Group and Technical Support Unit for all their input support, and collaboration over the past three years. Paula Harrison and Ian Holman acknowledge financial support from the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the EUfunded IMPRESSIONS project (Grant Agreement 603416). Martin Schlaepfer received support from ENVIROSPACE, University of Geneva. Antoine Guisan acknowledges additional funding from the University of Lausanne to support Anthony Sonrel's contribution to the assessment

The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA) represents a crucial approach to incorporate the assessment of the sustainable use of natural resources and ecosystems into decision- and policy-making. However, its application is constrained by challenges distinct across specific implementation contexts, including those present in developing nations. In this paper, we focus on a pilot SEEA EEA application in a local-scale case study in Kyzyl Unkur, Jalal-Abad region, the Kyrgyz Republic, characterized by a unique natural walnut forest. We summarize key methodological and empirical challenges identified through collaboration with local experts and stakeholders during the compilation of Supply and Use tables for selected ecosystem services (ES) relevant at local, national and global levels. Specifically, we focus on the methodological challenges related to a) defining and assigning benefits for own consumption; b) delineating the chain of ES flows (e.g., fodder for farm animals); c) uncovering the relevance of carbon sequestration in developing nation contexts which are often minor greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters and demand for the service lies mostly beyond their boundaries. Among empirical challenges, we highlight the issues of data collection and availability. The aim of this communication is to provide lessons learnt from building SEEA EEA accounts in a developing, data-scarce context, potentially transferable to other similar applications.

Protected areas serve as reserves of biological diversity and conserve the naturalness of characteristic regional ecosystems. Numerous approaches have been applied to estimate the level of transformation of ecosystems and to compare trends inside and outside of protected areas. In this study, we apply aggregate indicators of anthropogenic pressures on ecosystems and biodiversity in a fine-scale spatial analysis to compare the level of human influence within protected and unprotected areas. The actual state of ecosystems is compared to a natural baseline that is intact or potential natural state. The results show that in a non-protected Central-European landscape, humans appropriate a considerable share of natural ecosystem productivity and carbon stocks, and significantly reduce natural biodiversity and ecosystem services. Human appropriation of net primary production reached more than 60% in total, humans reduced original biodiversity levels by 69%, and net carbon storage was considerably decreased by intensive types of land use. All three indicators significantly differed between protected areas and unprotected areas, suggesting that protected areas maintain higher biodiversity levels, store more carbon and are in total less influenced by human exploitation than average non-protected landscape. Furthermore, we bring evidence that human appropriation of net primary production is negatively related both to biodiversity and ecosystem services indicated by mean species abundance and net carbon storage at the national level. Our results contribute to the quantitative evidence of the impacts of anthropogenic transformation of natural ecosystems on the ecosystem condition, supporting the hypothesis that protected areas significantly reduce anthropogenic pressures and contribute to maintaining critical ecosystem services and biodiversity.

Scenario analyses have been used in multiple science-policy assessments to better understand complex plausible futures. Scenario archetype approaches are based on the fact that many future scenarios have similar underlying storylines, assumptions, and trends in drivers of change, which allows for grouping of scenarios into typologies, or archetypes, facilitating comparisons between a large range of studies. The use of scenario archetypes in environmental assessments foregrounds important policy questions and can be used to codesign interventions tackling future sustainability issues. Recently, scenario archetypes were used in four regional assessments and one ongoing global assessment within the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The aim of these assessments was to provide decision makers with policy-relevant knowledge about the state of biodiversity, ecosystems, and the contributions they provide to people. This paper reflects on the usefulness of the scenario archetype approach within science-policy processes, drawing on the experience from the IPBES assessments. Using a thematic analysis of (a) survey data collected from experts involved in the archetype analyses across IPBES assessments, (b) notes from IPBES workshops, and (c) regional assessment chapter texts, we synthesize the benefits, challenges, and frontiers of applying the scenario archetype approach in a science-policy process. Scenario archetypes were perceived to allow syntheses of large amounts of information for scientific, practice-, and policy-related purposes, streamline key messages from multiple scenario studies, and facilitate communication of them to end users. In terms of challenges, they were perceived as subjective in their interpretation, oversimplifying information, having a limited applicability across scales, and concealing contextual information and novel narratives. Finally, our results highlight what methodologies, applications, and frontiers in archetype-based research should be explored in the future. These advances can assist the design of future large-scale sustainability-related assessment processes, aiming to better support decisions and interventions for equitable and sustainable futures. © 2019 by the author(s). Nadia Sitas, Ryan Blanchard, and Patrick O'Farrell were supported by SwedBio at Stockholm Resilience Centre funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Zuzana Harm??kov? and Reinette Biggs were supported by the GRAID programme funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). Reinette Biggs was also supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) (grant 98766) and the Swedish Research Council (grant 621-2014-5137). Eefje den Belder was funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands. Support to Paula A. Harrison was provided by UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the EU-funded IMPRESSIONS project (Grant Agreement 603416).

This chapter aims to provide up-to-date quantitative estimates of the costs and benefits related to adaptation strategies for different sectors in Europe. This is done by critically evaluating modeling frameworks and contexts applied to adaptation and by describing new developments achieved in sectoral assessment models (water, agriculture, ecosystems, and health). Robust methodologies have been applied to deal with uncertainty and an advanced discussion is included on the challenges learnt to better address the upscaling issue from bottom-up adaptation processes. Costs and benefits are explored with respect to present and future climate scenarios, different socioeconomic development pathways and different adaptation strategies. In all models, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways 2 (“middle of the road”), 3 (“fragmented world”), and 5 (“market-driven development”) are considered for comparative assessment as well as the climate scenarios according to remote concentration pathway 4.5 (average climate change) and 8.5 (high climate change) at 2050 (also see Chapter 2: Storylines and Pathways for Adaptation in Europe).

This chapter provides an overview of climate change adaptation across Europe, from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective, drawing on key findings from case study-based research on local climate change impacts and adaptation solutions, including an analysis of participatory, economic, and sociopolitical approaches, methodologies, and tools. Structured in six sections, the chapter builds upon a set of analytical discussions regarding: the diversity of climate change impacts and adaptation solutions at the local level; the role of participatory methods and approaches; the results of economic evaluation methods and models applied to local case studies; a framework for identifying best practices and characterizing the key barriers and opportunities for implementing local strategies and plans; and a set of robust guidelines and evaluation criteria for climate change adaptation measures. Key findings highlight the intricacies of local-level adaptation utilizing robust examples from case studies across European regions, and provide a comprehensive analysis of local strategies and plans, from a multilevel, multiactor, and multiscale perspective. The chapter also discusses and presents a set of methodological approaches that can be applied to facilitate local-level adaptation while also providing an analytical framework for comparing and evaluating local climate change adaptation.

This study aims to contribute to current discussions on ecosystem-service related decision-making by conducting an assessment of trade-offs between alternative land use scenarios in the Třeboňsko Wetlands Biosphere Reserve, the Czech Republic, in terms of regulating ecosystem services provision. To achieve this, we created three land use change scenarios (Business-as-Usual, Protection, and Exploitation, respectively), based on participation of local stakeholders. Consequently, we evaluated the levels of two vital wetland regulating ecosystem services – climate regulation, and water quality improvement – under each scenario using the InVEST modelling suite, additionally performing an economic assessment for climate regulation. The highest level of climate regulation was achieved under the Protection scenario (5.29% improvement of carbon stocks, with corresponding economic value of 16.6 million EUR). The impact of the Exploitation scenario on climate regulation was the most substantial, with net loss of carbon stocks representing 13.58% decrease in comparison with the current state (40.0 million EUR). The change in water quality in terms of nitrogen discharge ranged between an exacerbation of 7.87% and an improvement of 15.55% among all three scenarios. Our results showed that noticeable trade-offs occur between the scenarios in terms of regulating ecosystem services, which should be accounted for in local landscape conservation decisions. The Třeboňsko Biosphere Reserve has been frequently used as a pilot area for socio-ecological research and we discuss implications of ecosystem services as an integrative concept for the long-term socio-ecological research in this area.

Mainstreaming the concept of ecosystem services has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. Initially, most studies on ecosystem services assessments addressed global, sub-global or local levels. More recently, development of ecosystem services assessments at national level has been emphasized. Following this trend, integrated assessment of ecosystem services has been performed in the Czech Republic. Our study aimed to identify and value ecosystem services delivered in the Czech Republic. To estimate the total value of Czech ecosystems, we developed a geographically-specific database of ecosystem service values. The structure of the assessment is given by six ecosystem types (agricultural ecosystems, grasslands, forests, aquatic ecosystems, wetlands and urban areas) and 17 ecosystem services delivered from these ecosystems. Ecosystem types are further classified into 41 ecosystem categories based on a habitat approach. Specific literature review strategy was conducted to fill the database with biophysical and economic values of ecosystem services. Developed database consists of more than 190 values of ecosystem services, approximately half of them has been used for a benefit transfer to calculate total ecosystem values in the Czech Republic. The resulting average value of ecosystem services in the Czech Republic represents 1.5 the current national GNP (gross national product).

Ecosystem services, defined as benefits provided by ecosystem functioning to society, are essential to human well‐being. Due to global environmental change and related anthropogenic drivers, ecosystems are often degraded, which hinders the delivery of ecosystem services. This study aims to quantify the impacts of land use and climate change on two regulating ecosystem services—carbon sequestration and water purification in terms of nitrogen retention in the Czech Republic. While employing approaches of scenarios and modeling, we illustrate current and potential future status of these ecosystem services. Our results show that among the ecosystem change drivers, one of the dominant domestic land‐use change of (Business‐As‐Might‐Be‐Usual) scenario is change of arable land and grassland to forest area that increases by 4.5% in 2080 compared to 2000. The results of ecosystem service modeling based on scenario for the years 2050 and 2080 indicate that the highest yearly carbon sequestration rate occurred in 2000–2050, reaching 640 GgC·yr −1 , 2000–2080 shows decline in this regulating service by 16%. Average nitrogen leaching to water streams reached 0.75 kgN·ha −1 ·yr −1 for in 2050 scenario and 0.80 kgN·ha −1 ·yr −1 for in 2080 scenario as a result of decreasing nitrogen load, which suggested a decrease in nitrogen pollution compared to 2000. Since ecosystem services have not been extensively mainstreamed into research and policies in eastern European countries, we aim to contribute to improvement of knowledge on current status and potential future pathways of the provision of regulating ecosystem services in the Czech Republic.

Cities are complex socioecological systems that are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and are also exposed to other trends, such as urbanization and population aging. Due to the changing climate, days with extreme temperatures are expected to become more numerous, which is particularly important for urban areas, where the urban heat island phenomenon is observed. This study presents an example of a spatially explicit potential climate change impact assessment of heatwaves integrating both science and stakeholder participation for three large Czech cities (Prague, Brno, and Pilsen). Stakeholder participation exercises were used to prioritize climate change risks, provide impetus and opportunity for knowledge co-production, and support adaptation planning. Potential climate change impacts of heatwaves in the three Czech cities for the current baseline (1981&ndash, 2010) and for the future (2021&ndash, 2040) using Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)&mdash, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, were mapped at two levels describing &ldquo, in-city&rdquo, and &ldquo, inter-city&rdquo, comparison. When comparing the potential impact of heatwaves across the three cities (&ldquo, ), the most affected city is Brno, with 10.5% of its area in the very high impact category for the baseline and both RCPs. The &ldquo, comparison shows the differences between the baseline and future scenarios of each city. The assessment of heatwaves&rsquo, impacts was further used to support urban adaptation planning.

The aim of the study was to analyse economic costs and benefits of stakeholder-defined adaptation scenarios for the Sumava National Park, the Czech Republic, and to evaluate their impact on the provision of ecosystem services, primarily focusing on ecosystem-based adaptation options which support disaster risk reduction in a broader region. The study utilised an array of approaches, including participatory scenario building, GIS modelling and economic evaluation. Based on a participatory input by local stakeholders, four adaptation scenarios were created, formulating various possibilities of future development in the area as well as potential vulnerabilities and adaptation needs. The scenarios subsequently served as the basis for biophysical modelling of the impacts of adaptation and disaster risk reduction measures on the provision of ecosystem services with the InVEST modelling suite, focusing on climate regulation, water quality and hydropower production. Finally, a cost-benefit analysis was conducted, quantifying management and investment costs of each adaptation scenario, and benefits originating from the provision of previously modelled regulating ecosystem services, together with a supplementary selection of provisioning services. This study serves as an example of combining stakeholder views, biophysical modelling and economic valuation in the cost-benefit analysis of ecosystem-based adaptation and disaster risk reduction, which provides the opportunity to find shared solutions for the adaptation of social-ecological systems to global change.