Promoting Coastal Climate Adaptation in the old historic town centre of Piran, Slovenia

Key Learnings

• Stakeholder involvement improves adaptation: Involving citizens and other stakeholders early on to share knowledge and experience through surveys and workshops boosted citizen engagement and facilitated the establishment of an active stakeholder community operating within the historic town, referred to as a coastal city living lab. The workshop participants, for example, evaluated the effectiveness of Nature-based Solutions for climate adaptation.
• Improving terraced gardens: A design plan for repairing the terraced gardens with dry-stone walls will help to implement the adaptation actions by following an organised approach. The design plan will facilitate collaboration between authorities, local community groups and Non-Governmental Organisations to repair damaged dry-stone walls and redesign two municipality-owned gardens with local, climate-resilient plants.
• Restoring historic water systems: Re-activating abandoned and degraded historic water collection systems preserves cultural heritage and contributes to climate adaptation by providing fresh water for gardening and communal cleaning.
• Simultaneous adaptation and restoration measures: The effectiveness of Nature-based Solutions and cultural heritage traditions/infrastructures as climate adaptation solutions depends also on the parallel implementation of renovating underground sewer and drainage systems, especially in old Mediterranean towns like Piran.

Summary

Piran, one of Slovenia’s coastal municipalities on the Northern Adriatic, faces major climate challenges, including winter coastal flooding from storm surges and summer droughts and heatwaves that cause freshwater scarcity. To respond, the local community, led and supported by the Science and Research Centre Koper, worked with citizens, local organisations, and municipal authorities to identify and prioritise Nature-based Solutions through a series of workshops. Together they agreed on actions such as planting trees to provide shade and cooling, renovating historic rainwater collectors to improve water retention, and creating multi-purpose green spaces that combine biodiversity, water storage, and recreation – an approach particularly important in the limited urban space of Mediterranean towns. The stakeholders also recognised the value of traditional methods such as water-permeable pavements, dry-stone walls, and terraced gardens, which potentially can contribute to both climate resilience and cultural heritage preservation. A dedicated working group is now continuing this effort, advancing Nature-based and traditional solutions to strengthen resilience while protecting Piran’s unique architecture and landscape.

Contact

Cécil Meulenberg, cecil [dot] meulenbergzrs-kp [dot] si (cecil[dot]meulenberg[at]zrs-kp[dot]si)