Institutional governance barriers for the development and implementation of climate adaptation strategies

Abstract In this paper we summarise the main social barriers to adaptation presented in climate literature – the inherent uncertainty of climate change, fragmentation, institutional voids, short term horizon of politicians and policies, and the motives and willingness to start adapting. We have linked these topics to theories in public administration to explore if there is interesting overlap that could be beneficial for our understanding of institutional governance barriers for developing and implementing adaptation strategies. We conclude that there are strong interdependencies between what has been signalled in adaptation literature as barriers to adaptation and what has been theorised in public administration literature. However, barriers in the development of adaptation have been hardly discussed in climate adaptation literature. Therefore we argue that in order to understand factors that stagnate the development and implementation of adaptation policy strategies, existing theories of public administration could prove very valuable. Keywords; barriers; adaptation strategies; institutions; governance

Adaptatie van infrastructuur aan klimaatverandering: strategieën in andere landen

In deze notitie wordt bekeken hoe in andere landen wordt omgegaan met aanpassing aan klimaatverandering op het gebied van infrastructuur, met het accent op zes dimensies: risicobenadering, omgaan met onzekerheden, afwegingskaders, afstemming tussen bestuursniveau’s, beleidsintegratie, en internationale samenwerking. Met uitzondering van de watersector is infrastructuur over het algemeen niet het beleidsterrein waar aanpassing aan klimaatverandering zich vooralsnog primair op richt, behalve in een aantal landen waar de infrastructuur bijzonder kwetsbaar is, zoals in pool- en berggebieden. De notitie trekt dan ook lessen vanuit een breder beleidsterrein dan uitsluitend infrastructuur. Nederland samen met het Verenigd Koninkrijk speelt een voortrekkersrol bij klimaatadaptatie. Dat sluit echter niet uit dat uit vergelijking met andere landen geen interessante lessen af te leiden zijn. Ook buiten Europa ( Canada en Australië) zijn waardevolle voorbeelden en ervaringen te vinden over infrastructuur en klimaatverandering. De notitie leidt uit deze ervaringen in andere landen een aantal aanbevelingen af voor de verdere ontwikkeling van adaptatiebeleid in de infrastructurele sector en identificeert een aantal relevante kennislacunes

Partnership of European Environmental Research: climate projects 2008

Powerpoint presentation about the Partnership of European environmental research: climate projects 2008. This presentation is about the TOLERATE conference of May 19th 200

Explaining through causal mechanisms : resilience and governance of social–ecological systems

This paper synthesizes and builds on recent critiques of the resilience literature; namely that the field has largely been unsuccessful in capturing the complexity of governance processes, in particular cause–effects relationships. We demonstrate that absence of a causal model is reflected in the black-boxing of governance processes which is problematic for resilience studies with explanatory ambitions. We introduce mechanism-based thinking as alternative research perspective that offers more analytical rigour and elaborate the key principles of this approach. Mechanism-based approaches are aligned to the ways of thinking in systems theory and complexity sciences and can be used to advance scientific inquiry and policy practice to govern complex sustainability issues

Introducing Adaptive Flood Risk Management in England, New Zealand, and the Netherlands: The Impact of Administrative Traditions

Climate change adaptation creates significant challenges for decision makers in the flood risk-management policy domain. Given the complex characteristics of climate change, adaptive approaches(which can be adjusted as circumstances evolve) are deemed necessary to deal with a range of uncertainties around flood hazard and its impacts and associated risks. The question whether implementing adaptive approaches is successful highly depends upon how the administrative tradition of a country enable or hinder applying a more adaptive approach. In this article, we discern how the administrative tradition in the Netherlands, England, and New Zealand impact upon the introduction of adaptive flood risk management approaches. Using the concept of administrative traditions, we aim to explain the similarities and/or differences in how adaptive strategies are shaped and implemented in the three different state flood management regimes and furthermore, which aspects related to administrative traditions are enablers or barriers to innovation in these processe

How Dutch Institutions Enhance the Adaptive Capacity of Society

This report examines the adaptive capacity of the institutional framework of the Netherlands to cope with the impacts of climate change. Historically, institutions have evolved incrementally to deal with existing social problems. They provide norms and rules for collective action and create continuity rather than change. However, the nature of societal problems is changing as a result of the processes of globalization and development. With the progress made in the natural sciences, we are able to predict in advance, to a certain extent, the potential environmental impacts of various human actions on society, for example, climate change. This raises some key questions: Are our institutions capable of dealing with this new knowledge about future impacts and, more importantly, with the impacts themselves? Are our institutions capable of dealing with the inherent uncertainty of the predictions

Het 'adaptieve vermogen' van het ontwerp Nationaal Waterplan : in hoeverre bevordert het ontwerp Nationaal Waterplan het vermogen van de Nederlandse samenleving om zich aan te passen aan klimaatverandering?

Het adaptatiewiel is door Kennis voor Klimaat toegepast op het te voeren waterbeleid (Nationaal Waterplan, 2008) in Nederland. In de inspraakreactie levert KvK commentaar op het NWP, maar wijst ook de sterke kanten van het ontwerp Nationaal Waterplan aan

Climate Change Adaptation in European Mountain Systems: A Systematic Mapping of Academic Research

European mountain regions have already been impacted by climate change, and this is projected to increase in the future. These mountain regions experience rapid changes, which influence social-ecological systems in the lower-mountain and floodplain regions of Europe. There is scattered evidence across different strands of academic literature on the ways in which the impacts of changing climate in mountain regions are addressed and adaptive capacity is enhanced. Using a systematic mapping review, we mapped English-language scientific journal articles that analyzed the climate change adaptation options that are planned or implemented in European mountain regions. Our understanding of how academic literature has investigated climate change adaptation is critical to identifying key knowledge gaps and research foci. Following the Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses in environmental research protocol, 72 scientific articles published between January 2011 and August 2019 were identified from a total of 702 scientific articles. Our findings show that existing academic literature has a strong focus on the western and southern European mountains: the European Alps (n = 24), Pyrenees (n = 11), and Sierra Nevada (n = 4). Key climate impacts reported for the biophysical systems include reduction in forest carbon, soil erosion, changes in vegetation patterns, and changes in plant population and tree heights; in human systems, these include water availability, agricultural production, changes in viticulture, and impacts on tourism. Key adaptation options reported in this article are wetland conservation options, changing cropping and cultivation cycles, tree species management strategies, and snow-making technology. We found very few articles analyzing governance responses to planning and implementing adaptation; these had a strong bias toward techno-managerial responses. We conclude that, while climate impacts are substantial in European mountain regions, there are knowledge gaps in academic literature that need to be addressed.</p