Resumen
This research describes the current state of adaptation in the transport sector in Europe and explores their potential, lessons learnt and limits. The objective is to establish a typology of current approaches and assess their impact in terms of both, short term feasibility and long-term sustainability. As a result, some follow-up actions are suggested for policy making in terms of promoting better integrated consideration of mitigation and adaptation challenges, developing new technical tools and expertise to forecast potential climate change impacts, and expanding adaptation from the current operational focus to the planning and policy making fields. Data & Methodology (150 words). This research is based on extensive data collection of stakeholders? views and case studies conducted in 2013 and 2014 in the framework of the European Topic Centre on Climate Change Adaptation (ETC/CCA) of the European Environment Agency (EEA), as summarized in report EEA 8/2014 (http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/adaptation-of-transport-to-climate). The research makes a systematic assessment of the evidence gathered from the perspective of (1) technical base, (2) implicit causality chains and their relevance, (3) short term expected impacts, (4) integration with long-term policies and priorities. The assessment serves to categorize current actions in accordance with their expected impact, compatibility with a long-term low-carbon paradigm, and capacity to build up consensus among stakeholders (at the planning, infrastructure, operations and use levels). Expected results (100 words): Based on the evidence gathered, it is claimed that there is a risk for incremental adaptation approaches to involuntarily consolidate already-prevailing unsustainable transport practices, so that transition efforts towards low-carbon transport would become more difficult to undertake. A number of innovative adaptive approaches in Europe, based on medium and long-term strategies, which address mitigation and adaptation in an integrated way are described, and ways to mainstream these integrated approaches are discussed.