Assessment of Regional Adaptation Strategies in Greece

Despite the institutional establishment of Regional Adaptation Action Plans (RAAPs), no systematic cross-regional assessment has examined their structure and implementation dynamics. The objective of this research is to categorize various adaptation strategies identified at the regional level within the 13 RAAPs of Greece and evaluate the current implementation status by introducing a three-pillar RAAP assessment approach including (i) typological classification of all RAAP measures (soft, development and hard), (ii) functional classification of sectoral measures applied to two indicative pilot regions (Crete and the Ionian Islands) and (iii) stakeholder insights on the implementation of regional adaptation. Each measure is assigned to its corresponding adaptation sector to enable cross-regional comparison. The implementation level is assessed through interviews with regional officials exploring criteria guiding measure selection, existing funding mechanisms and social consequences. These findings reveal the characteristics of early stage regional adaptation planning in Greece, where monitoring priorities, institutional capacity and sectoral exposure strongly shape adaptation strategies. Beyond descriptive mapping, the study introduces a structured multi-level analytical framework that offers a replicable tool for the comparative assessment of regional adaptation governance and advances research from policy-inventory approaches toward governance-oriented evaluation at the sub-national scale.