Dr Samanta Bačić is a Senior Assistant in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy at the University of Split, Croatia. Her primary area of expertise is in geoinformatics with a focus on Geographic Information System (GIS) models tailored for urban environmental management in the context of climate change and green transition goals. She is actively involved in two Horizon-Europe projects, DesirMED and A-AAGORA, which both promote nature-based solutions as key strategies for sustainable and resilient development.
Climate change is causing greater risks of extreme weather events like flooding across the EU. How are these risks affecting coastal and urban areas in Croatia?
Flooding affects approximately 15% of Croatia’s land territory. The 2015 Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment (DIVA) model identified Split as the urban cluster with the highest number of people experiencing flooding annually, while the Kaštela Bay, which includes the cities of Split, Solin, Kaštela, and Trogir, will experience the highest number of people affected by flooding per floodplain area.
These regions face compound risks: sea level rise, riverine flooding and extreme precipitation events. The consequences are not only environmental but also socio-economic, especially in regions where cultural heritage and tourism are central to local identity and livelihoods.
You are part of the Horizon Europe-funded DesirMED project that is exploring the potential for nature-based solutions for building climate resilience in the Mediterranean – can you tell us more about the project?
Samanta Bačić: DesirMED is an international project that aims to accelerate climate adaptation in the Mediterranean region through nature-based solutions, innovative technologies and inclusive social practices. The project has 34 partners from 10 countries, with activities across eight regions, including the Split-Dalmatia County as one of the demonstration regions.
The Mediterranean region is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts and so the project’s goal is to develop and test locally adapted solutions, promote their scaling and strengthen regional capacities for long-term resilience. This includes creating a shared vision, facilitating knowledge exchange, mobilising finance and building a cross-regional community of practice. Nature-based solutions play a central role in environmental preservation, community resilience and generating long-term socio-economic benefits.
Our team at the University of Split collaborates with regional stakeholders to assess climate vulnerabilities and develop GIS-based models that support the integration of nature-based solutions into urban and coastal planning. These approaches involve leveraging natural processes and ecosystems to mitigate climate risks, which can include green infrastructure, wetland restoration and coastal protection.
Why are nature-based solutions a particularly interesting area of research for climate adaptation?
Samanta Bačić: Nature-based solutions are increasingly being recognised as essential tools for climate adaptation. Unlike traditional grey infrastructure, nature-based solutions harness natural processes and ecosystems to mitigate climate risks and they can evolve and adapt over time, enhancing their long-term effectiveness. For example, instead of using concrete when channelising urban streams, cities are opting for re-naturalising streams which helps reduce flood risks.
The value of Nature-based solutions is in their multifunctionality – they can simultaneously help with climate resilience, ecological restoration and social wellbeing. For example, restoring urban green spaces can reduce flood risks, regulate temperature, improve air quality, support biodiversity and create more liveable environments. The ability of nature-based solutions to evolve and adapt over time also makes them especially attractive, as this reduces the need for intensive maintenance and upgrades.
What are some of the challenges and barriers to climate adaptation and nature-based solutions that you have seen in your work? What can be done to overcome these?
Samanta Bačić: Some of the key challenges we face include fragmented governance, a lack of cross-sectoral integration, and limited technical and financial capacities, as well as low awareness of the multiple benefits nature-based solutions offer.
Although interest in integrating nature-based solutions is growing, translating that interest into action needs specific tools, knowledge and experience, which can be particularly challenging for smaller municipalities. Nature-based solutions often need higher initial investment than traditional infrastructure, which can be a barrier at the outset, despite offering more favourable cost-benefit ratios in the long-term.
International collaboration is one way to address these barriers and this is a driver we are fostering through the DesirMED project – this kind of cooperation enables the exchange of knowledge, experiences and methodologies, helping us adapt best practices from across the EU to our local contexts.
We have to involve a diverse range of experts, stakeholders and citizens in the planning process to make sure nature-based solutions fit the specific needs of local communities. These approaches are not just short-term fixes, they represent new approaches to urban development that are resilient, inclusive and ecologically grounded.
What is your outlook for the future in building climate resilience?
Samanta Bačić: Here in Croatia, I believe there is growing awareness of the need to build climate resilience, especially in urban areas and there are numerous global, European and national strategies that are laying the groundwork for this.
However, I feel that in Croatia these frameworks are mostly at the declarative level – translating policy into practice remains a challenge. Many local authorities lack the resources and infrastructure to implement adaptation measures, particularly nature-based solutions. There are funding opportunities through EU programmes and national recovery plans, but access to these can be uneven and we need long-term investment to build institutional resilience. We need stronger cross-sector policy integration and sustainable financing mechanisms, and more inclusive governance.
I’m optimistic that there is a real opportunity for transformative change, and NbS can and should become the norm, particularly through international collaboration and projects like DesirMED, which help bridge science, policy, and practice across diverse regional contexts.