Co-producing climate services for urban adaptation: what shapes perspectives of success?

Cities play a crucial role in adapting to climate change. Climate services for adaptation are increasingly developed by scientists, knowledge brokers, consultants, and other producers, to assist cities in their adaptation efforts. It is widely advised that these knowledge products and processes be co-produced with city users to ensure their usability and uptake. The assumption is that a better process leads to better outcomes, facilitating learning about the needs of cities and the potential of climate services for adaptation. Consequently, what producers and users consider a successful climate service may evolve over time. However, the mechanisms and reasons behind the evolution of these success perceptions remain unexplored. This study aims to fill this gap. Using an explaining-outcome process-tracing approach, this study analyzed the success perceptions of key stakeholders in a climate service co-production case for the city of Logroño, Spain. The study reveals that what defines success is socially constructed, can change over time, and is influenced by personal characteristics, interactions with others, and the context in which the process takes place. Success perceptions were shaped through a dynamic interplay between individual and social learning among stakeholders, while factors such as experience, trust-building, and resources for co-production played important roles. ‘Learning-by-doing’ and ‘reality-check’ mechanisms explain changes in success perception, while a ‘self-reinforcement’ mechanism accounted for a stable success perception. The finding that the concept of success is dynamic and not fixed should be taken into account in future research and practices aimed at developing successful climate services for adaptation. • Stakeholders perceive the success of climate services for adaptation differently. • Actors, process, and context factors shape success perceptions • Success perceptions may change over time through individual and social learning • Trust and resources facilitate learning processes between users and producers. • Co-production should prioritize learning on success over using strict criteria.