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Interfacing citizens’ and institutions’ practice and responsibilities for climate change adaptation

Wamsler, Christine LU and Brink, Ebba LU (2014) In Urban Climate 7. p.64-91
Abstract
Climate change poses a serious challenge to sustainable urban development, placing many cities at risk. Climatic conditions are changing to such an extent that the capacity of urban institutions and associated governance systems to deal with climatic extremes and variability is being reduced. New approaches for urban climate change adaptation are thus urgently needed.



There is an increasing consensus that local-level capacities are critical for successful adaptation to climate change and the achievement of sustainable development. However, knowledge about local-level capacities is scarce, and regulatory frameworks are often ambiguous in terms of assigning (complementary) responsibilities for adaptation to institutions... (More)
Climate change poses a serious challenge to sustainable urban development, placing many cities at risk. Climatic conditions are changing to such an extent that the capacity of urban institutions and associated governance systems to deal with climatic extremes and variability is being reduced. New approaches for urban climate change adaptation are thus urgently needed.



There is an increasing consensus that local-level capacities are critical for successful adaptation to climate change and the achievement of sustainable development. However, knowledge about local-level capacities is scarce, and regulatory frameworks are often ambiguous in terms of assigning (complementary) responsibilities for adaptation to institutions and citizens. Against that background, the paper investigates the adaptive practice of Swedish citizens and how this relates to local municipalities’ adaptation efforts and to the ‘interface’ between citizens’ and institutions’ legal responsibilities. By theorising the interplay between the adaptive practice of citizens and institutions, it demonstrates that adaptive capacity at the local level does not automatically translate into adaptation itself, thus showing the requirement for planned and more complementary interventions. The outcomes suggest the need for more distributed urban risk governance systems and people-oriented planning to foster an adaptive and sustainable transformation of cities. The potential scope of action for more people-oriented adaptation planning is presented. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Disaster risk reduction, People-oriented planning, Coping strategies, Adaptive practice, Climate change adaptation, Urban resilience and transformation
in
Urban Climate
volume
7
pages
64 - 91
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:84896398051
ISSN
2212-0955
DOI
10.1016/j.uclim.2013.10.009
project
Increasing Societies´ Adaptive Capacities to Climate Change: Distributed Urban Risk Governance for Achieving Sustainable Transformation and Resilience of Cities.
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6bccc1e0-45be-4794-a8e1-30e4f635b28b (old id 3912120)
alternative location
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212095513000606
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:45:24
date last changed
2022-04-22 05:02:46
@article{6bccc1e0-45be-4794-a8e1-30e4f635b28b,
  abstract     = {{Climate change poses a serious challenge to sustainable urban development, placing many cities at risk. Climatic conditions are changing to such an extent that the capacity of urban institutions and associated governance systems to deal with climatic extremes and variability is being reduced. New approaches for urban climate change adaptation are thus urgently needed.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
There is an increasing consensus that local-level capacities are critical for successful adaptation to climate change and the achievement of sustainable development. However, knowledge about local-level capacities is scarce, and regulatory frameworks are often ambiguous in terms of assigning (complementary) responsibilities for adaptation to institutions and citizens. Against that background, the paper investigates the adaptive practice of Swedish citizens and how this relates to local municipalities’ adaptation efforts and to the ‘interface’ between citizens’ and institutions’ legal responsibilities. By theorising the interplay between the adaptive practice of citizens and institutions, it demonstrates that adaptive capacity at the local level does not automatically translate into adaptation itself, thus showing the requirement for planned and more complementary interventions. The outcomes suggest the need for more distributed urban risk governance systems and people-oriented planning to foster an adaptive and sustainable transformation of cities. The potential scope of action for more people-oriented adaptation planning is presented.}},
  author       = {{Wamsler, Christine and Brink, Ebba}},
  issn         = {{2212-0955}},
  keywords     = {{Disaster risk reduction; People-oriented planning; Coping strategies; Adaptive practice; Climate change adaptation; Urban resilience and transformation}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{64--91}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Urban Climate}},
  title        = {{Interfacing citizens’ and institutions’ practice and responsibilities for climate change adaptation}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2013.10.009}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.uclim.2013.10.009}},
  volume       = {{7}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}