Adaptation in progress. Monitoring and evaluation of climate adaptation planning in coastal cities of Western Mediterranean Europe. =

In recent years, climate change adaptation strategies are becoming more widely recognized. However, at a local level, there are still few studies on this subject. This research analyses the current state of climate adaptation planning, and in particular the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) process of coastal cities with between 20,000 and 100,000 inhabitants in Western Mediterranean Europe. The aim is to find out whether these cities are producing plans and whether they are monitoring them to find out their effectiveness. To do this, the analysis is divided into two phases: the first phase seeks to find out how many cities within the profile have a plan, what type of actions they propose, and whether they include M&E; the second phase is based on a semi-structured interview with some municipalities to analyze more in detail their M&E processes and find best practices related to it. The results reveal that only 31.7% of the cities have a climate change plan. However, it is highlighted that among the most predominant actions are those of adaptation and that 91.7% of the plans found include some reference to the M&E. On the other hand, among the cities interviewed, all have a continuous M&E process despite the challenges expressed and one of the key factors for this continuity is the municipality's alliances and/or partnerships with other external organizations that commit them to do the M&E. This study highlights the crucial role of the local scale in the fight against climate change and the importance of the M&E of plans.