In this paper we present an interoperable multimedia delivery framework for scalable video coding based on MPEG-21 Digital Item Adaptation (DIA). In can be used to transmit scalable video contents within heterogeneous usage environments where the properties of the usage environment (e.g., terminal/network capabilities) may change dynamically during the streaming session. The usage environment is signaled by interoperable description formats provided by the DIA standard. Additionally, the adaptation itself is done by exploiting the standard's generic adaptation approach, i.e., independent of the actual coding format. Thus, the overall framework is also applicable for other scalable coding formats.