From climate risk to action: Aradippou builds resilience to heat, floods and water scarcity

A growing municipality broadening its climate response

Aradippou, adjoining Larnaca, is crossed by the Archangelos–Kammitis and Parapotamos watercourses and has been identified as an Area of Potentially Significant Flood Risk under Cyprus’s implementation of the EU Floods Directive. At the same time, prolonged dry periods and rising temperatures increase pressure on already scarce water resources.These hazards interact with a territory that combines urban neighbourhoods, agricultural land and industrial activity, making climate adaptation a cross-cutting planning challenge affecting residents and public health, buildings and roads, drainage and water infrastructure, and farming.

Over more than a decade of participation in European programmes, the municipality initially focused its climate agenda around the energy transition. Its energy strategy led to Cyprus’s first municipality-owned photovoltaic park, the replacement of street lighting with LEDs, energy-efficiency improvements in public buildings and steps towards electrifying the municipal fleet. In delivering these projects, Aradippou also gained experience in developing and financing projects and in working with national authorities to overcome regulatory and infrastructure constraints.

Nevertheless, in order to respond to the growing interconnected risk, over the past two years, the municipality expanded its focus to a more comprehensive climate adaptation agenda, building on previous experience to revisit the climate-related challenges identified in its earlier strategy, assess local vulnerabilities more systematically and align its priorities with longer-term national climate objectives and investment decisions. This marked a shift from individual climate projects towards a more integrated approach to energy, water, infrastructure, land use and urban development.

                                             Aradippou's Solar Park

From climate risk assessment to action and investment planning

Aradippou joined the first Pathways2Resilience cohort in 2024 to turn its climate-risk assessment into a structured plan for action. The process established a 2050 resilience vision and developed a Climate Resilience Strategy, Action Plan and Investment Plan. Stakeholder workshops and the municipality’s online engagement platform also fed into the process, helping to connect technical assessments with local priorities and implementation needs.

The strategy focuses particularly on persistent water stress and drought, and extreme heat and heatwaves, sequencing measures so that near-term actions can create the conditions for more ambitious interventions over time. The Action Plan translates these priorities into concrete measures, responsibilities and timeframes, including water planning and reuse, drought preparedness, heat mapping and urban greening.

The Investment Plan then examines how larger measures can be financed and delivered, linking adaptation priorities with potential funding sources and implementation conditions. The municipality is exploring how revenues from its renewable-energy projects and savings from energy-efficiency measures could be reinvested in adaptation. This allows the municipality to build on the financial benefits of its earlier energy transition as it expands its adaptation agenda.

Putting resilience into practice: water infrastructure and urban greening

Aradippou’s priority climate risks are already being addressed through investments at different scales. The largest is the €21.3 million Aradippou Flood Control Dams project, implemented by Cyprus’s Water Development Department from 2021 to 2029. The Kammitis and Archangelos dams provide a combined storage capacity of 1.25 million m³, supported by around 13 km of pipelines, to capture floodwater and protect downstream areas of Aradippou and Livadia.

The infrastructure also supports water security: stored water can be transferred towards Aradippou’s agricultural area, with up to 500,000 m³ available to cover part of local irrigation needs. The project therefore combines flood protection with improved water availability for agriculture.  

At municipal level, Thucydides Municipal Park provides a smaller-scale urban-greening response. The approximately 5,000 m² project, financed by the municipality with a budget of €349,430 plus VAT, includes green and recreational space and preservation of existing vegetation. Aradippou has linked the project to its commitment to the EU Mission on Adaptation and to creating more resilient urban spaces.  

Together, the two investments illustrate how implementation in Aradippou combines large-scale national infrastructure with municipality-led action, using different funding and governance routes to address water, flood and heat resilience.

                                             Aradippou's Antiflood Dam

Lessons learnt and next steps

Aradippou’s experience highlights four practical lessons for municipalities moving from climate planning to implementation.

• Connect climate-risk assessment with action and investment planning. Identifying climate risks is only the starting point. By linking its resilience strategy with action and investment planning, Aradippou is translating priorities into measures, responsibilities and financing needs.  
• Build adaptation into wider municipal planning rather than treating it as a stand-alone agenda. Aradippou’s resilience work builds on previous experience with environmental and energy projects, while extending the focus to water management, flood protection, urban greening and long-term spatial planning. This existing administrative and project-management capacity provided a useful foundation for a more systematic adaptation approach.  
• Combine political commitment with multi-level governance and diversified funding. Implementation depends on more than municipal investment alone. Aradippou combines municipal resources, European support and nationally implemented infrastructure, making coordination between municipal and national authorities essential for turning resilience priorities into funded projects.  

Aradippou’s next priority is to move its resilience portfolio further into implementation by developing mature projects, securing financing and assigning clear responsibilities and timelines. The municipality also aims to strengthen institutional capacity and continue developing nature-based and resilient urban solutions within its broader climate-resilience strategy. 

Aradippou, Cyprus

Covenant Signatories since 2014

Population: 25.000

Area covered: 100 km2 

Key Figures

Overall CO₂ emissions reduction target: 

• % GHG emissions reductions by 2030 -55% (2009 baseline)
• Climate neutrality (Net Zero) by 2050 

Figures on the projects:

• €21.3 million / 1.25 million m³ / approx. 13 km – Budget, combined storage capacity and pipeline network of the Aradippou Flood Control Dams project
• 1.25 million m³ – combined nominal storage capacity of the Kammitis and Archangelos dams, supported by approximately 13 km of pipelines
• Up to 500,000 m³ – Water that can be retained to cover part of the irrigation needs of Aradippou’s agricultural area
• Approx. 5,000 m² / €349,430 + VAT – Area and municipal budget of Thucydides Municipal Park 

Useful links:

• Videos of the projects
• Aradippou climate-resilience resources
• Aradippou – Pathways2Resilience
• Aradippou European Programmes Archive
• THALIA – Aradippou Flood Control Dams