The undebated issue of justice: silent discourses in Dutch flood risk management

Flood risk for all types of flooding is projected to increase based on climate change projections and increases in damage potential. These challenges are likely to aggravate issues of justice in flood risk management (henceforth FRM). Based on a discursive-institutionalist perspective, this paper explores justice in Dutch FRM: how do institutions allocate the responsibilities and costs for FRM for different types of flooding? What are the underlying conceptions of justice? What are the future challenges with regard to climate change? The research revealed that a dichotomy is visible in the Dutch approach to FRM: despite an abundance of rules, regulations and resources spent, flood risk or its management, are only marginally discussed in terms of justice. Despite that the current institutional arrangement has material outcomes that treat particular groups of citizens differently, depending on the type of flooding they are prone to, area they live in (unembanked/embanked) or category of user (e.g. household, industry, farmer). The paper argues that the debate on justice will (re)emerge, since the differences in distributional outcomes are likely to become increasingly uneven as a result of increasing flood risk. The Netherlands should be prepared for this debate by generating the relevant facts and figures. An inclusive debate on the distribution of burdens of FRM could contribute to more effective and legitimate FRM

Public-Private Cooperation for Climate Adaptation - Providing Insurance Loss Data to the Municipalities

This chapter discusses experiences from public-private cooperation for climate services providing insurance loss data (from weather related damage) on asset level for Norwegian municipalities.‘Insurance loss data’ display insurance adjustments on address level after nature hazards. The chapter compiles results from three successive studies performed in the period from 2013 to 2018. The studies examined the utility value of insurance loss data for 10 municipalities and investigated the attitudes in the 8 largest Norwegian insurance companies for sharing such data. The findings demonstrate that insurance loss data on asset level can improve municipal understanding of both current and future climate risks, and thus improve the effect and quality of measures to prevent and adapt to such risks. However, with respect to data quality, precise time and place for damage occurrence is essential. With respect to data availability, it is essential that the insurance companies are willing to share loss data with municipalities working with mitigation of risks. Commercial sensitivity is important for the companies, and therefore only restricted entities should be allowed access to the data. The insurance companies also stressed their responsibility for protection of privacy for their customers. Finding solutions to the data access and privacy is up to national authorities. As a direct follow-up of the findings and the recommendations from the studies, The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Finance Norway are cooperating in developing a climate service called ‘knowledge bank’ for compiling and providing access to data on natural hazard events. The knowledge bank is relating to both current and future climate, strengthening municipalities in their work on risk prevention, and climate change adaptation. Loss data from insurance companies are one type of data they are including