Civil protection and climate vulnerability

This project takes the link between civil protection and climate change as its starting point. Our aim is to investigate which factors determine the capacity for local adaptation to climate change by studying long-term institutional learning within civil protection institutions in the wake of extreme weather events. Our main interest is in long-term proactive measures. By proactive we mean measures that will reduce the vulnerability of society to extreme weather events. When working with extreme weather w e may differ between high- (e.g. a hurricane) and low-input extreme events (e.g. small increase in winter temperature leading to more frequent periods of temperatures below and above 0? Celsius, which in turn could trigger an increase in severe avalanches ). Furthermore, we may differ between the case of ?old? and ?new? risks. Many of the existing systems of planning and producing scenarios do not take into considerations the possibilities of climatic changes. The project will consist of four stages: (1) S coping study in which we will map what kind of extreme weather events civil protection institutions historically have worked with. We will study three institutional systems: the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DSB), the department of emergency planning at the County Governor and the county geologist at the County Municipality. (2) In-depth study in a limited number of local cases, in which we will focus on the local level of governance. (3) Synergy stage. (4) Constructive stage, i n which we will arrange a dialogue seminar with representatives of the civil protection institutions in Norway that we have studied. Furthermore, we have included a comparative element in which we will compare the situation of Norway with two countries: S weden and the Netherlands. Our partners in these two countries will do one case study each as a part of stage (2), and they will participate in stage (3) and (4) as discussion partners.