Participatory multi-criteria methods for adaptation to climate change

The quality and implementation of climate change policies generally benefit from the involvement of diverse stakeholders. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic commissioned an elaboration of the National Action Plan (NAP) for implementation of the National Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change (NAS). A structured process, including a panel of experts and the participation of stakeholders, was designed to establish and evaluate policy options for the NAP. The panel members involved high-ranking officials from the relevant ministries and public agencies involved in nature protection, forestry, water management, and public health, as well as academics, representatives of regional and local governments, businesses, and members of non-governmental organisations. Delphi and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were applied in order to evaluate the policy options. Interactive online tools were developed to perform the Delphi and AHP exercises. In the Delphi process, the participants drafted a comprehensive catalogue of challenges and potential policy activities in relation to adaptation to climate change in Slovakia. The AHP exercise evaluated and ranked 32 policy measures for eight specific policy objectives on the criteria of importance, urgency and feasibility.