Case study: co-designing flood resilience with local communities

Within the DROP project, Eurac Research applied the participatory approach promoted by Adattamento ai cambiamenti climatici: come coinvolgere le comunità to support local flood-resilience planning in the municipalities involved in the project, including Cambiago. DROP focuses on flood-risk management through soft, community-based measures, with the aim of helping decision-makers identify effective, sustainable, and socially accepted solutions at local and regional level.

A concrete example was the participatory weekend organised in Cambiago at the end of February 2026. The initiative brought together residents, local stakeholders, municipal representatives, and members of the Youth Municipal Council in a process designed to collect local knowledge and inform the next phases of the project. Activities included participatory mapping of places affected by the May 2024 flood, a serious game session on flood-risk management, and the pre-testing of a questionnaire on the impacts of the flood on people and the environment.

This case shows how community engagement can become a practical component of adaptation planning rather than a parallel activity. By involving local actors directly in identifying vulnerabilities, discussing priorities, and contributing to the co-design of future measures, the process helped build a stronger and more socially grounded basis for non-structural flood-risk management and local adaptation policies.