Livable Cities - London AMPS | City, University of London Page 264 infrastructure measures is challenging because it involves addressing multiple urban issues, such as green and open spaces, traffic and utility infrastructure, water management, and sewage systems, while coordinating with various stakeholders.4 Greening initiatives face numerous obstacles, including administrative, technical, and legal constraints, as well as a significant lack of awareness and acceptance among local residents and stakeholders.5 PRAGUE6 Prague's Climate Change Adaptation Strategy The review of Prague's conceptual planning documents includes an analysis of the city's Climate Change Adaptation Strategy7 (2018), which outlines six specific objectives. However, only two of these objectives directly address urban adaptation through blue-green infrastructure: (A) adaptation to temperature increases, urban heat islands, and heat waves, and (B) adaptation to mitigate the effects of heavy rainfall, flooding, and long-term drought in the capital city. The remaining objectives focus on areas such as energy efficiency, crisis management, sustainable mobility, and public education. The overarching goal of the strategy is to “reduce the vulnerability of the City of Prague to the impacts of climate change in order to ensure a high-quality living environment for its inhabitants in the future.” Its vision emphasizes “increasing the city's long-term resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change impacts through the gradual implementation of appropriate adaptation and soft measures, thereby ensuring the quality of life for residents.” Implementation and Project Categorization To operationalize the strategy, the city has developed follow-up implementation plans, specifically the Implementation Plan 2018-2019 and the Implementation Plan 2020-2024. These documents act as roadmaps, providing a detailed list of planned or completed actions, commonly referred to as the “project stack”. Projects are divided into four main categories: blue-green infrastructure, grey infrastructure, environmental projects, and studies or conceptual frameworks. As of 31 July 2022, the updated “project stack” for the implementation of Prague's adaptation strategy includes a total of 294 projects, of which 97 have been completed, with a combined value of CZK 10,272,461,315.8 The majority of these projects fall within three main categories: (i) the revitalization of parks, green spaces, and the planting of greenery, (ii) the construction, restoration, and maintenance of trees and tree plantations, and (iii) the creation of water bodies, wetlands, and floodplains for rivers and streams. Notably, 83% of the total funding has been allocated to blue-green infrastructure projects and objectives. Challenges in Transparency and Strategic Planning Despite the city's efforts to monitor progress through regular reports, the transparency of results and financial allocations remains problematic. The reports do not offer a clear breakdown of annual expenditures or detail which types of projects received funding. Moreover, while the adaptation strategy aims to reduce Prague's vulnerability to climate change, a surprising discovery is that none of the 294 projects seem to have been specifically designed with these overarching goals in mind. Instead, these projects were primarily district-level investment initiatives that would likely have been implemented even without the strategy. Due to their alignment with certain objectives of the adaptation strategy, they were later included in the strategy’s project pipeline. Districts that applied for funding were subsequently awarded full or partial subsidies for these projects. Further research will explore the specific motivations that led districts to prioritize these projects.
