Measuring progress in climate adaptation is essential to track resilience-building, guide investments, and inform policy. Yet, adaptation measurement remains fragmented and contested: while some frameworks focus on process indicators (e.g., planning, governance, capacity), others emphasize outputs (e.g., implemented measures), or outcomes and impacts (e.g., reduced vulnerability, enhanced resilience). Each approach has strengths and limitations, and their combination is critical to capturing the complexity of adaptation and informing adaptation action.
This session invites contributions that advance understanding and practice in measuring and evaluating progress in climate adaptation across scales, hazards and sectors. We welcome research that develops or applies frameworks, methods, and tools for adaptation monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), as well as critical reflections on their usability, comparability, and policy relevance.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
Development and application of process, output, outcome, and impact indicators for adaptation, with a focus on outcomes and impacts.
Approaches to integrating multiple indicator types for holistic assessment.
Use of novel data sources and methods (Earth observation, citizen science, AI, participatory surveys) for MEL.
Cross-scale measurement: from local initiatives to national reporting and global stocktake.
Addressing uncertainty, attribution, and time horizons in adaptation measurement within the MEL process.
Considerations of equity, justice, and governance in defining and applying adaptation metrics.
Case studies showcasing practical experiences of tracking adaptation progress across geographies and contexts.
By bringing together conceptual, methodological, and applied perspectives, this session seeks to identify pathways towards robust, inclusive, and actionable adaptation metrics that can guide decision-making and enhance accountability under the EU Mission on Adaptation, the Paris Agreement, and other global frameworks.