Climate Change (CC) is recognized as an urgent concern, which implies negative effects on the
environment, such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, fl ooding, droughts, and desertifi cation. It
involves not only the environmental, but also the economic, and social sphere. The impacts
of CC are addressed through two complementary strategies: mitigation and adaptation. The
fi rst one operates on the reasons of CC aiming at preventing or reducing greenhouse gases
emissions, while the second one focuses on the damage they can cause, aiming at minimizing
it or to take advantage of opportunities that may occur.
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) represents a systematic and participatory decisionmaking
support process, aiming at integrating environmental considerations in the elaboration
of plans and programs. While SEA regards explicitly mitigation strategies, so far it still refers
marginally to CC adaptation measures to be carried on when implementing spatial planning
tools at the regional and local scale. The integration of SEA processes with concepts inspired
to adaptation to CCs represents a powerful tool for mainstreaming the corresponding policies
and strategies. In this study, we scrutinize SEA and spatial planning tools issued in Sardinia
(Italy), with reference to their attitude to incorporate possible climate adaptation concerns. We
are interested in proposing and applying a framework based on internationally acknowledged
criteria that need to be met to properly implement climate change adaptation measures and
actions in current spatial planning and SEA practices