Climate change and its consequences on habitats with respect to shifting temperature and precipitation patterns, increasing probabilities and intensities of natural hazards as well as the interrelation with increasing CO2 levels and changed nutrient dynamics altogether, require adaptive management strategies.

Only a limited number of the interdependent effects on habitats in protected areas can be clearly addressed in advance. Most of the changes start gradually without large impacts. Therefore, an evaluation and enhancement of existing management strategies due to new and changing climate conditions was important. Since these alterations are gradual in very practical terms (like problems with invasive species or shift of habitat character due to changed water level) local stakeholders have to identify their issues in relation with the broader implications of climate change.

The first step was to identify the current, user known problems in the protected areas. This was done by means of stakeholder dialogue. Despite the fact that some project partners were able to describe important pressures and impacts on their project sites, the differentiation between CC from land use effects, as well as their interrelation in relation to Central Europe and other protected areas needs the application of, and evaluation by supporting models.

Furthermore, guidelines and workflows for climate change adapted management strategies and practices were developed. Moreover, the effects of different management strategies and practices directly linked to climate change was investigated. Results were integrated into the Web-GIS/SDSS platform developed in WP 5.