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####What is climada?

• climada stands for **clim**ate **ada**ptation and is a probabilistic natural catastrophe damage model, that also calculates averted damage (benefit) thanks to adaptation measures of any kind (from grey to green infrastructure, behavioural, etc.).

• climada is based on four elements

  • Assets (i.e. geographical distribution of people, houses, activities, public infrastructure)
  • Damage functions (relating impact to economic consequence)
  • Hazards (currently implemented are: tropical cyclones, storm surge, torrential rain, earthquake and volcano on a global yet local (1km) resolution, plus winter storm in Europe)
  • Adaptation measures (i.e. improved building codes, seawall, sandbags, reefs, mangroves).

• climada is running in MATLAB®, which is a numerical computing environment, and GNU OCTAVE, the open source alternative.

• climada is the open source natural catastrophe model, that implements the Economics of Climate Adaptation methodology, especially steps 2 and 3.

####What is the _Economics of Climate Adaptation (ECA) Methodology_?

• ECA enables climate-resilient development for cities, regions and countries.

• ECA seeks to answer the following questions of national and local decision-makers

  • What is the potential climate-related loss to the economies and societies over the coming decades?
  • How much of that loss can we avert, with what measures?
  • What investments will be required to fund those measures and will the benefits of that investment outweigh the costs?

• ECA provides the facts and methods necessary to design and execute a climate adaptation strategy that

  • identifies action to minimize climate impacts at the lowest cost to society and
  • allows to integrate adaptation with economic development and sustainable growth.

• ECA consists of five essential steps

^{Source (and detailed methodology): ECA Working Group See Shaping climate-resilient development, a framework for decision-making, page 122ff}