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Klimatanpassning av svensk kritisk infrastruktur: Elnät, ICT, Järnväg, Fjärrvärme och Vatten och Avlopp

Vallin, Lovisa LU (2025) VRSM01 20242
Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
Risk Management and Safety Engineering (M.Sc.Eng.)
Abstract
Climate change is a reality, with no indication of slowing down or reversing. Climate
change causes extreme weather to occur more intensely and frequently. This poses a
significant threat to critical infrastructures, which must adapt to withstand the new
conditions they are increasingly exposed to. Climate change adaptation are measures
which have the purpose to lessen the negative effects of climate change. Adaptation of
critical infrastructure is complex and is characterized by deep uncertainty, which means at
minimum that it needs to consider multiple components in order to be successful. This
paper designs a framework, based on a literature review, that highlights the most
important components of climate change adaptation. The... (More)
Climate change is a reality, with no indication of slowing down or reversing. Climate
change causes extreme weather to occur more intensely and frequently. This poses a
significant threat to critical infrastructures, which must adapt to withstand the new
conditions they are increasingly exposed to. Climate change adaptation are measures
which have the purpose to lessen the negative effects of climate change. Adaptation of
critical infrastructure is complex and is characterized by deep uncertainty, which means at
minimum that it needs to consider multiple components in order to be successful. This
paper designs a framework, based on a literature review, that highlights the most
important components of climate change adaptation. The framework has 6 components: 1)
proactive/reactive, 2) time perspective, 3) knowledge, 4) degree of maturity, and 5)
consideration of dependency and collaboration as well as 6) incentives. This framework
was applied to assess five critical infrastructures in Sweden—power grid, ICT, railway,
district heating, and water and sewage—to evaluate their climate change adaptation. The
result showed that the railway infrastructure was the infrastructure deemed best at climate
change adaptation and district heating was the infrastructure in need of most additional
work. The result also showed that the most underdeveloped component, for all
infrastructures, was the consideration of dependency and collaboration in climate
adaptation. The analysis also highlighted noticeable differences between larger and
smaller actors operating within the same infrastructure sector. These differences were
evident in their approaches to work, attitudes toward climate adaptation, and levels of
knowledge about climate adaptation. However, it was observed that the existing literature
lacked sufficient information to allow for a more detailed and in-depth analysis of these
differences.
Climate change adaptation may be improved in critical infrastructures by incorporating
cooperation between relevant actors, so that they can exchange knowledge and concretize
climate change adaptation. The limited collaboration between the actors especially
between the infrastructures but even in some cases within the infrastructure itself, is
hindering climate change adaptation. A way to foster the cooperation is by involving
bridging actors whose role is to disseminate information and facilitate collaboration
among actors. The collaboration can be a way to enable and start the process of consideration
of interdependency between the infrastructures and to concretize the concept
of climate change adaptation, since it is associated with deep uncertainty complexity.
Further, the scientific literature was very general when discussing climate change
adaptation and very rarely went into concrete measures for infrastructures instead
discussing it more general and addressing it through strategies. Hence further work is
needed to more concretely address climate adaptation of our critical infrastructures. (Less)
Popular Abstract (Swedish)
Klimatförändringen är en realitet som våra kritiska infrastrukturer måste anpassa sig till för att
stå emot framtida hot. En analys av fem infrastrukturer – elnät, ICT, järnväg, fjärrvärme samt
vatten och avlopp – visar stora skillnader i klimatanpassningsarbetet. Järnvägen har kommit
längst, medan fjärrvärmen har störst behov av utveckling. Det övergripande största problemet är
bristande samarbete och hänsyn till beroenden mellan infrastrukturer. Utan förbättringar riskerar
åtgärder att bli felriktade eller kontraproduktiva. För att möta detta krävs bättre samverkan,
bland annat genom aktörer som kan underlätta informationsspridning och samordning.
Klimatanpassning är avgörande för att möta vår förändrade framtid.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Vallin, Lovisa LU
supervisor
organization
course
VRSM01 20242
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Klimatanpassning, kritisk infrastruktur, ramverk, Sverige
language
Swedish
id
9188025
date added to LUP
2025-05-07 08:59:07
date last changed
2025-05-07 08:59:07
@misc{9188025,
  abstract     = {{Climate change is a reality, with no indication of slowing down or reversing. Climate
change causes extreme weather to occur more intensely and frequently. This poses a
significant threat to critical infrastructures, which must adapt to withstand the new
conditions they are increasingly exposed to. Climate change adaptation are measures
which have the purpose to lessen the negative effects of climate change. Adaptation of
critical infrastructure is complex and is characterized by deep uncertainty, which means at
minimum that it needs to consider multiple components in order to be successful. This
paper designs a framework, based on a literature review, that highlights the most
important components of climate change adaptation. The framework has 6 components: 1)
proactive/reactive, 2) time perspective, 3) knowledge, 4) degree of maturity, and 5)
consideration of dependency and collaboration as well as 6) incentives. This framework
was applied to assess five critical infrastructures in Sweden—power grid, ICT, railway,
district heating, and water and sewage—to evaluate their climate change adaptation. The
result showed that the railway infrastructure was the infrastructure deemed best at climate
change adaptation and district heating was the infrastructure in need of most additional
work. The result also showed that the most underdeveloped component, for all
infrastructures, was the consideration of dependency and collaboration in climate
adaptation. The analysis also highlighted noticeable differences between larger and
smaller actors operating within the same infrastructure sector. These differences were
evident in their approaches to work, attitudes toward climate adaptation, and levels of
knowledge about climate adaptation. However, it was observed that the existing literature
lacked sufficient information to allow for a more detailed and in-depth analysis of these
differences.
Climate change adaptation may be improved in critical infrastructures by incorporating
cooperation between relevant actors, so that they can exchange knowledge and concretize
climate change adaptation. The limited collaboration between the actors especially
between the infrastructures but even in some cases within the infrastructure itself, is
hindering climate change adaptation. A way to foster the cooperation is by involving
bridging actors whose role is to disseminate information and facilitate collaboration
among actors. The collaboration can be a way to enable and start the process of consideration
of interdependency between the infrastructures and to concretize the concept
of climate change adaptation, since it is associated with deep uncertainty complexity.
Further, the scientific literature was very general when discussing climate change
adaptation and very rarely went into concrete measures for infrastructures instead
discussing it more general and addressing it through strategies. Hence further work is
needed to more concretely address climate adaptation of our critical infrastructures.}},
  author       = {{Vallin, Lovisa}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Klimatanpassning av svensk kritisk infrastruktur: Elnät, ICT, Järnväg, Fjärrvärme och Vatten och Avlopp}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}