title: Online participation in climate change adaptation: A case study of agricultural adaptation measures in Northern Italy.
abstract: The new EU strategy on adaptation to climate change suggests flexible and participatory approaches. Face-to-face contact, although it involves time-consuming procedures with a limited audience, has often been considered the most effective participatory approach. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in the visibility of different citizens' initiatives in the online world, which strengthens the possibility of greater citizen agency. This paper investigates whether the Internet can ensure efficient public participation with meaningful engagement in climate change adaptation. In elucidating issues regarding climate change adaptation, we developed an eParticipation framework to explore adaptation capacity of agriculture to climate change in Northern Italy. Farmers were mobilised using a pre-existing online network. First they took part in an online questionnaire for revealing their perceptions of and reactions to the impacts of ongoing changes in agriculture. We used these results to suggest a portfolio of policy measures and to set evaluation criteria. Farmers then evaluated these policy options, using a multi criteria analysis tool with a simple user-friendly interface. Our results showed that eParticipation is efficient: it supports a rapid data collection, while involving high number of participants. Moreover, we demonstrated that the digital divide is decreasingly an obstacle for using online spaces for public engagement. This research does not present eParticipation as a panacea. Rather, eParticipation was implemented with well-established participatory approaches to both validate the results and, consequently, communicate meaningful messages on local agricultural adaptation practices to regional decision-makers. Feedbacks from the regional decision-makers showed their interest in using eParticipation to improve communication with farmers in the future. We expect that, with further Internet proliferation, eParticipation may allow the inclusion of more representative samples, which would contribute to an informed and legitimate decision-making process.
authors: Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Department of Economics, Cannaregio 873, 30121 Venice, Italy; Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change, Economic Analysis of Climate Impacts and Policy Division, Isola di S. Giorgio Maggiore, 30124 Venice, Italy. Electronic address: dragana.bojovic@cmcc.it.
authors: Dragana
authors: D
authors: Bojovic
authors: Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Department of Economics, Cannaregio 873, 30121 Venice, Italy; Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change, Economic Analysis of Climate Impacts and Policy Division, Isola di S. Giorgio Maggiore, 30124 Venice, Italy.
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Bonzanigo
authors: Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Department of Economics, Cannaregio 873, 30121 Venice, Italy; Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change, Economic Analysis of Climate Impacts and Policy Division, Isola di S. Giorgio Maggiore, 30124 Venice, Italy.
authors: Carlo
authors: C
authors: Giupponi
authors: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Sustainable Development Group, Isola di S. Giorgio Maggiore, 30124 Venice, Italy.
authors: Alexandros
authors: A
authors: Maziotis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D057231:Climate Change; D003256:Community Participation; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D058735:Environmental Policy; D005062:European Union; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D020407:Internet; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Adapting farming practice; Decision-support; Public engagement; eParticipation