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Summary: The climate scenarios of the IPCC suggest that adaptation to future climate change will be required. The North Sea Region, a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, is particularly affected due to rising sea level and a changing water balance. Water management plays a key role in sustainable management of natural and societal resources. This paper presents a participatory study of community approaches to regional adaptation to climate change. Water management adaptation options to regional climate induced changes until 2050 were developed together with stakeholders for the Wesermarsch County (Northern Germany). Available information on expected regional climate change and a modelling study on hydrological change suggested that adaptation of water management will be required until 2050. A regional stakeholder forum formulated a vision on how the Wesermarsch should look like in 2050. Following the holistic approach of collaborative planning, two stakeholder groups developed an adaptation portfolio on how urban and rural areas could adapt their water management to cope with the expected changes. Since most of the stakeholders do not want the county to undergo significant changes in terms of landscape and land use, they proposed technical measures to enforce flood protection and enhance the performance of the existing water management system. Adaptation in terms of land use change was not proposed although information on comparable examples from similar regions was available. To justify the proposed adaptation options, available information on expected climate change impacts was used selectively. Uncertainty in model projections was partly ignored to legitimate suggesting inflexible (technical) adaptation measures. However, collaborative planning proved to be helpful for a joint adaptation to climate change at the regional scale. Stakeholders as well as scientists took active part in the participatory learning process as required by EU directives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Mediterranean and neighboring countries are already experiencing a broad range of natural and man-made threats to water security. According to climate projections, the region is at risk due to its pronounced susceptibility to changes in the hydrological budget and extremes. Such changes are expected to have strong impacts on the management of water resources and on key strategic sectors of regional economies. Related developments have an increased capacity to exacerbate tensions, and even intra- and inter-state conflict among social, political, ecological and economic actors. Thus, effective adaptation and prevention policy measures call for multi-disciplinary analysis and action. This review paper presents the current state-of-the-art on research related to climate change impacts upon water resources and security from an ecological, economic and social angle. It provides perspectives for current and upcoming research needs and describes the challenges and potential of integrating and clustering multi-disciplinary research interests in complex and interwoven human-environment systems and its contribution to the upcoming 5th assessment report of the IPCC. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]