Hydropower is an essential part of the energy mix in France, accounting for around 20% of installed capacity. Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events and to accelerate snowmelt, which would result in increased flood risk. Flooding can adversely affect dams causing overtopping, outages, damage to equipment and adverse downstream impacts. It is essential that dam operators take these risks into consideration and implement adaptation measures as needed.

Demographic change and climate change together place great challenges on the society. The life expectancy of the population in Germany rises and so does the share of older people. Besides chronic patients and children, the elderly are especially affected by the effects of the climate change. At the same time more and more people live in single person households (increase from 14.56 million in 2004 to 16.83 million in 2016 in Germany), which can influence their social isolation.

Kristalbad is an area of about 40 hectares located in the east of the Netherlands between the cities of Enschede (160.000 inhabitants) and Hengelo (81.000 inhabitants). This is one of the last remaining green areas between these two cities, playing a role for ecosystem-based adaptation to cope with potential climate change related impacts.

Herdade do Freixo do Meio is an organic certified farm of 440 hectares located in the Alentejo region in the south of Portugal, a region characterized by the multifunctional agro-silvo-pastoral system of cork and holm oak trees, named montado. This farm employs about 20 people and produces cork, vegetables, fruit, wine and herbs, and holds animals (such as sheep, cows, pig, turkey and chicken) extensively.

Bologna, like many Southern European cities, is facing drought, extreme temperatures and water scarcity as a result of climate change. With no national or regional adaptation action plan still in place, the city of Bologna took it upon themselves to draft an Adaptation Plan to Climate Change. The plan, which was approved by the City Council on October 2015, focuses on the development of innovative, concrete measures that could be tested locally.

Climate change impacts are expected to strongly impact the Madrid region and include extreme heat in summer, water scarcity and occasional heavy rainfall.

In inner city Berlin, plans for the development of new buildings are subjected to the Berlin Landscape Programme, which includes a regulation requiring a proportion of the area to be left as green space: the Biotope Area Factor (BAF) or BFF (Biotop Flächenfaktor). All potential green areas, such as courtyards, roofs and walls are included in the BAF. The regulation is a part of a larger set of documents relating to landscape planning and design as well as species protection. It responds to the need to encourage more green space in densely built-up urban areas.

The neighbourhood of Augustenborg, during the 1980s and 1990s an area of social and economic decline, was frequently flooded by an overflowing drainage system. Between 1998 and 2002 it was regenerated. The physical changes in infrastructure included the creation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS), including 6km of water channels and ten retention ponds.

With 5.71 m²/inhabitant in 2019, the city of Basel in Switzerland has the largest area of green roofs per capita in the world (Living roofs and walls from policy to practice, 2019).

The old office building at Groot Willemsplein, Rotterdam, dating back to the 1940’s, was renovated to give it a new life with commercial functions on the ground floor and flexible office spaces at the other floors. The most important climate adaptation and mitigation measure implemented is the energy-efficient cooling and heating system. An Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system supplies the building with heat and cold. In summer, heat will be absorbed and stored in a ground water aquifer, this stored heat can be used in winter to heat the building.