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Short Abstract

Transformational adaptation requires ways to monitor when change is truly systemic and just. This contribution explores how citizen and participatory science can co-develop qualitative indicators rooted in risk perception, sense of place and participation.

Abstract

As international frameworks increasingly call for transformational adaptation, the challenge lies not only in implementing change but in understanding how to assess it. While recent debates (Biesbroek et al., 2025) highlight the political and conceptual ambiguity of what counts as “transformational”, citizen and participatory science can offer an innovative response, by linking the production of environmental data with the lived, social, and cognitive dimensions of change. This session of roundtable proposes to reconceptualize the data-to-policy pipeline as a co-assessment space where citizen-generated evidence supports the monitoring of adaptation’s transformative quality. Drawing on transdisciplinary experiences in urban adaptation, the dialogue explores how three social drivers - risk perception, sense of place, and participatory governance - can act as qualitative indicators revealing when adaptation moves beyond incremental fixes toward structural, cultural, and institutional reconfigurations. The roundtable will also foster reflexive discussion on the politics of defining and measuring transformation: whose knowledge counts, what forms of evidence are legitimised, and how citizen science can contribute to a fairer framing of adaptation progress.

By connecting social cognition, place attachment, and participatory practice with data readiness frameworks, this session envisions a next-generation approach to monitoring transformational processes, one that merges scientific robustness with democratic legitimacy and enables learning across diverse territories and communities.