Hens Runhaar

What makes strategic environmental assessment successful environmental assessment? The role of context in the contribution of SEA to decision-making

The expectations of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) regarding the integration of environmental and sustainability concerns into policy-making are high. Although evidence of its impact up to now is only indirect and, more important, appears to be modest, more attention has to be paid to the fact that the term ‘impact’ can be interpreted in different ways and to the importance of context in impact analysis. In this paper, we propose an assessment framework in which these aspects are explicitly addressed. To illustrate and verify the practical value of our framework we analyse four Dutch SEA case studies.

Mainstreaming climate adaptation into urban planning: overcoming barriers, seizing opportunities and evaluating the results in two Dutch case studies

With cities facing climate change, climate adaptation is necessary to reduce risks such as heat stress and flooding and maintain the goals of sustainable urban development. In climate change literature, the focus has been on developing a new dedicated policy domain for climate adaptation. Yet, empirical evidence shows that in practice actors are searching for solutions that not only serve climate adaptation, but integrate the adaptation objective in existing policy domains (e.g., urban planning, water management, public health). The integration of adaptation in other policy domains, also called “mainstreaming climate adaptation,” can stimulate the effectiveness of policy making through combining objectives, increase efficient use of human and financial resources and ensure long-term sustainable investments. A better understanding of the process of mainstreaming is, however, lacking. The article introduces a conceptual model for mainstreaming climate adaptation to enhance our understanding of the concept as well as the barriers and opportunities that influence these integration processes and to explore strategies for overcoming barriers and creating opportunities. Two Dutch case studies—related to urban planning—are used to illustrate the value of the model. The cases demonstrate the dynamic process of mainstreaming and raise discussion of the appropriate criteria for evaluating mainstreaming in relation to the aims of climate adaptation. The paper concludes with an exploration of specific strategies to facilitate the mainstreaming of adaptation in existing and new policy domains.

Adaptation to climate change-related risks in Dutch urban areas: stimuli and barriers

Climate change is associated with various risks, such as flooding and heat stress. So far, most research has concentrated on the identification and quantification of these risks as well as the development of adaptation measures. Yet much less is known about how planners actually perceive and deal with climate change, and why. This paper focuses on the governance of two climate change-related risks in urban areas in the Netherlands, namely heat stress and flooding from rainfall and rivers. Heat stress hardly seems to be perceived as an urgent problem, mainly because there is no clear ‘problem owner’. Because municipalities are responsible for rain and sewage water management and partly for river flooding, increased flood risk is more often recognised as a (potential) problem. Despite the rather low sense of urgency regarding these two climate change-induced risks, urban planners are, or envisage, investing in more open water and public green areas. Heat stress and flood risks from rainfall are not the reasons per se, but primarily act as additional arguments to legitimise these measures, which should contribute to sustainable urban development in general. Our analysis suggests a gap between the perceived urgency of proactive adaptation to climate change by scientists and the perceptions of planners. Climate science research could enhance its contribution to urban planning by providing conceivable projections of climate change impacts as well as by developing adaptation measures that serve multiple purposes and strategies to successfully implement these.

Exploring the scope of public and private responsibilities for climate adaptation

Although in practice the division of responsibilities in adaptation to climate change is often not explicitly decided upon, governments appear to be primary actors in adaptation planning. However, literature suggests that the governance of adaptation requires roles for both public and private actors so that responsibilities can be shared and all of societys resources can be fully exploited. Active involvement of all societal actors might overcome problems of inefficiency and raise the legitimacy of adaptation action. This article presents a framework that enables the characterization and explanation of existing governance arrangements in terms of responsibility divisions among public and/or private actors, and that facilitates the search for alternative responsibility divisions and their associated advantages and disadvantages. The framework is illustrated with an example of a governance arrangement for green roofs as an adaptation measure for storm water retention in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The merit of the framework is that it promotes the conscious deliberation of considerations in the public–private divide, taking into account some specific challenges to the governance of climate adaptation. It may, therefore, support well-informed decisions on responsibility divisions in climate adaptation by local governments.

The contribution of capacities and context to EIA system performance and effectiveness in developing countries: towards a better understanding

EIA has the potential to contribute towards more sustainable development through well-informed decision-making. Evaluation studies conclude that this potential is utilised to a considerable extent in rich western democratic countries such as Canada and The Netherlands, but hardly in developing countries. EIA capacity development programmes have not been able to structurally change this situation in developing countries, where there is lack of insight into the root causes of low EIA performance. There is growing evidence that context-specific characteristics such as the political system and the capacities of the key stakeholders are insufficiently considered in evaluations of EIA system performance. Most evaluations focus primarily on procedural shortcomings. As a consequence, capacity development activities that arise from EIA system evaluations do not tackle the underlying constraints. The aim of this article is to identify factors influencing EIA system performance in developing countries, and a conceptual model was developed to provide insight into those factors, building on a review of the current approaches and insights. A thorough assessment of EIA system performance is considered a necessary first step before capacity development activities can be identified, aiming to develop EIA systems that utilise the potential for EIA in a country.

Sustainable Urban Development and the Challenge of Policy Integration: An Assessment of Planning Tools for Integrating Spatial and Environmental Planning in the Netherlands

Over the last 10–15 years, urban planners in the Netherlands have been given more policy space for defining area-specific environmental ambitions, in an attempt to promote further the integration of environmental and urban planning. This increased policy space has offered new opportunities, but also poses new challenges for urban planners. Urban planners often appear to struggle with the issue of how to come to an operationalization of area-specific urban environmental quality. Various planning tools exist that can assist planners with these tasks. In this paper we distinguish between ‘substance-oriented’ tools such as environmental impact assessments and ‘process-oriented’ tools that facilitate interaction and consensus building among planners and stakeholders. Recently, in the Netherlands, a distinct type of ‘hybrid’ planning tool has been developed specifically for defining area-based environmental ambitions in spatial plans, coupled with the development of measures for attaining these ambitions. However, little research has been conducted into how these planning tools perform in practice and how this can be understood, especially in comparison with more traditional ‘substance-oriented’ and ‘process-oriented’ planning tools. In this paper we assess the added value of the new hybrid tools on the basis of an analysis of three exemplary case studies. Although the tools seem to be helpful in assisting urban planners to better integration of environmental and spatial planning, there are some aspects that deserve more attention, including the identification of financial consequences of environmental ambitions, and guidelines for dealing with controversies. Future research is recommended into the influence of the hybrid tools on their sociopolitical contexts, their performance in comparison with other hybrid planning tools, and their effective design.

Policy Analysis for Sustainable Development: The Toolbox for the Environmental Social Scientist.

Purpose – The paper seeks to propose the basic competencies of environmental social scientists regarding policy analysis for sustainable development. The ultimate goal is to contribute to an improvement of educational programmes in higher education by suggesting a toolbox that should be integrated in the curriculum.Design/methodology/approach – Starting from the basic research questions regarding governance for sustainable development, five methods are identified capable of answering the following questions: reconstruction of policy theories; stakeholder analysis; impact assessment; cost‐benefit analysis; discourse analysis. Relevant information was collected through a literature review and practical experience by the authors.Findings – These include: minimum content of the toolbox with methods of policy analysis for sustainable development; examples of how the toolbox can be applied; strengths and weaknesses of the methods; specification of competencies of environmental social scientists active in the ar...

A method for the deliberate and deliberative selection of policy instrument mixes for climate change adaptation

Policy instruments can help put climate adaptation plans into action. Here, we propose a method for the systematic assessment and selection of policy instruments for stimulating adaptation action. The multi-disciplinary set of six assessment criteria is derived from economics, policy, and legal studies. These criteria are specified for the purpose of climate adaptation by taking into account four challenges to the governance of climate adaptation: uncertainty, spatial diversity, controversy, and social complexity. The six criteria and four challenges are integrated into a step-wise method that enables the selection of instruments starting from a generic assessment and ending with a specific assessment of policy instrument mixes for the stimulation of a specific adaptation measure. We then apply the method to three examples of adaptation measures. The methods merits lie in enabling deliberate choices through a holistic and comprehensive set of adaptation specific criteria, as well as deliberative choices by offering a stepwise method that structures an informed dialog on instrument selection. Although the method was created and applied by scientific experts, policy-makers can also use the method.

TOWARDS PRODUCTIVE SCIENCE-POLICY INTERFACES: A RESEARCH AGENDA

Science-policy interactions are often contested, due to strategic production and use of knowledge. This is problematic because the potential of science to enrich decision-making is underexploited. Scientific literature suggests that these problems are related to a lack of credibility, salience and/or legitimacy of knowledge. Science-policy interfaces (SPIs), such as knowledge brokers, are suggested to enhance science-policy interactions by promoting the production of credible, salient and legitimate knowledge. However, the current scientific debate provides little clarity on which SPIs are most useful in solving which science-policy interaction problems and what strategies should be employed. Based on a profound literature review, this paper aims to arrive at a better understanding of SPIs, by providing conceptual clarity and linking typical SPIs to distinct problems and the contexts in which they emerge. We suggest an empirical research agenda to test theoretical claims about SPIs and our own refinements thereof, and to identify best practices.

Who governs climate adaptation? Getting green roofs for stormwater retention off the ground

Green roofs are an innovative solution for urban stormwater management. This paper examines governance arrangements for green roofs as a ‘no-regrets’ climate adaptation measure in five cities. We analysed who governs green roofs, why and with what outcome. Our results show that hierarchical and market arrangements co-exist in the various stages of the policy process. Cities with a higher prevalence of hierarchical arrangements have substantially higher implementation rates for green roofs. Although private sector involvement is crucial for raising efficiencies, a significant level of public responsibility taken by local governments appears to be salient for unleashing the potential of green roofs.