Philipp Schmidt-Thomé

European climate vulnerabilities and adaptation : a spatial planning perspective

The book builds upon the findings of a project conducted under the European observation network for territorial development and cohesion (ESPON), The ESPON Climate project. Following the stipulations of the ESPON programme and the tender for this project the territorial focus is the raison d’être and methodological core of the project as a whole and its various research actions: The outcomes of each action will be focused on what impacts global climate change will have for the different European regions and how the regions can cope with the projected impacts in order to become less vulnerable to climate change.

Climate change adaptation in practice: from strategy development to implementation.

List of Contributors vii About the Editors xi 1 Communicating Climate Change Adaptation: From Strategy Development to Implementation 1 Philipp Schmidt-Thome, Johannes Klein, Anika Nockert, Larissa Donges, and Inga Haller 2 Participatory Climate Change Adaptation in Kalundborg, Denmark 11 B. Bedsted and S. Gram 3 Adaptation to Sea Level Rise: Calculating Costs and Benefits for the Case Study Kalundborg, Denmark 25 Markus Boettle, Diego Rybski, and Jurgen P. Kropp 4 Coastal Protection and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: Didactically Processed Examples 35 Markus Boettle, Philipp Schmidt-Thome, and Diego Rybski 5 Preparing for Climate Change: Planning Adaptation to Climate change in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland 51 Ruusu Tuusa, Susanna Kankaanpaa, Jari Viinanen, Tiia Yrjola, and Sirkku Juhola 6 Adaptation to Floods in Riga, Latvia: Historical Experience and Change of Approaches 65 Laila Kule, Agrita Briede, Maris K avi , Guntis Eberhards, and Andris Locmanis 7 Climate Adaptation in Metropolis Hamburg: Paradigm Shift in Urban Planning and Water Management towards Living with Water ? 83 Joerg Knieling and Mareike Fellmer 8 Climate Change Adaptation Policy in Bergen: Ideals and Realities 95 O. Langeland, J.E. Klausen, and M. Winsvold 9 Adaptation to Climate Change in the Smeltale River Basin, Lithuania 111 Egidijus Rimkus, Justas Kapys, Edvinas Stonevieius, and Gintaras Valiu kevieius 10 The Geological Structure of Pyynikinharju Esker and the Local Effects of Climate Change 123 Jussi Ahonen, Tuire Valjus, and Ulla Tiilikainen 11 Climate Change and Groundwater: Impacts and Adaptation in Shallow Coastal Aquifer in Hanko, South Finland 137 Samrit Luoma, Johannes Klien, and Birgitta Backman 12 Climate Change and Groundwater From Modelling to some Adaptation Means in Example of Klaipeda Region, Lithuania 157 Jurga Arustiene, Jurgita Kriukaite, Jonas Satkunas, and Marius Gregorauskas 13 Climate Change A New Opportunity for Mussel Farming in the Southern Baltic? 171 Anna-Marie Klamt and Gerald Schernewski 14 Impacts of Sea Level change to the West Estonian Coastal Zone towards the End of the 21st Century 185 Valter Petersell, Sten Suuroja, Tarmo All, and Mihkel Shtokalenko 15 Geodynamical Conditions of the Karkle Beach (Lithuania) and Adaptation to Sea Level Change 205 Jonas Satkunas, Darius Jarmalavieius, Aldona Damu yte, and Gintautas Pilinskas 16 Consequences of Climate Change and Environmental Policy for Macroalgae Accumulations on Beaches along the German Baltic Coastline 215 Matthias Mossbauer, Sven Dahlke, Rene Friedland, and Gerald Schernewski 17 Climate Change Impacts on Baltic Coastal Tourism and the Complexity of Sectoral Adaptation 225 Christian Filies and Susanne Schumacher 18 Tourists Perception of Coastal Changes A Contribution to the Assessment of Regional Adaptation Strategies? 239 Larissa Donges, Inga Haller, and Gerald Schernewski 19 Experiences in Adapting to Climate Change and Climate Risks in Spain 253 Jorge Olcina Cantos 20 Developing Adaptation Policies in the Agriculture Sector: Indonesia s Experience 269 Daisuke Sano, S.V.R.K. Prabhakar, Kiki Kartikasari, and Doddy Juli Irawan 21 Climate Refugee Is Not a Hoax. But We can Avoid it. Empirical Evidence from the Bangladesh Coast 283 M. Mustafa Saroar and Jayant K. Routray 22 Promoting Risk Insurance in the Asia-Pacific Region: Lessons from the Ground for the Future Climate Regime under UNFCCC 303 S.V.R.K. Prabhakar, Gattineni Srinivasa Rao, Koji Fukuda, and Shinano Hayashi Index 325

Natural hazards and climate change: stakeholder communication and decision-making processes: an analysis of the outcomes of the 2006 Davos Conference on Disaster Reduction

Purpose – Headlines of increasing financial losses caused by natural hazards and the potential impact of climate change on these raise broad interest in risk management. This paper seeks to claim that the existing decision‐making support, for example through spatial planning, can easily integrate risk assessment schemes.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on the results of two EU funded research projects and further applications of those – as well as on conclusions drawn from presentations and discussions at the International Disaster Reduction Conference.Findings – Discussion around risk governance highlights the role of integration. This discussion is still very much in need of further development and successful ways to implement integrative, participatory governance.Practical implications – The research results presented have been elaborated in close cooperation with stakeholders. One example is based on a commissioned EU task that analyzed the effectiveness of European Regional Fund proje...

Climate Change in Vietnam

Vietnam is considered as one of the countries to be severely affected by climate change and thus response to climate change is of crucial importance to Vietnam, particularly in coastal areas. Rises in average temperatures have been observed over the last decades, as well as substantial changes to precipitation patters. The average temperatures have been rising and the total precipitation has increased, especially during the rainy seasons, which is important for flood water management. In northern Vietnam the precipitation during the dry seasons has decreased, which poses important challenges to water management.

Towards Applying Climate Change Adaptation

Climate change adaptation has been growing in importance since the beginning of the 21st century. Historically adaptation, not to climate change but to extreme events, was deeply rooted in many societies and their land-use structures. With industrialization, and especially the increase in globalization since the 1990’s the importance of appropriate adaptation has slowly decreased, leading to increased exposure and risks of human settlements in areas potentially affected by climate change impacts (e.g. sea level rise) and / or extreme events (natural hazards). In order to implement climate change adaptation sustainably feasible solutions should be identified, i.e. viable and acceptable from socio-economic point of views. The identification of such feasible solutions goes beyond pure scientific analysis but incorporates stakeholders, decision-makers and local knowledge.

Applying Climate Change Adaptation in Spatial Planning Processes

Natural hazards play an increasingly important role in societal contexts due to rising casualties and costs observed in the last decades, which is often attributed to Climate Change impacts. Climate Change adaptation and natural hazards have entered European regional policy relatively recently but are quickly growing in importance. In addition to several national and regional Climate Change adaptation strategies the Territorial Agenda of the European Union and the EU White Paper on Climate Change Adaptation mention Climate Change and hazard related risk management as key role in European regional development. But in this argument it is often overlooked that human societies have developed settlements in hazard prone areas, sometimes despite better knowledge. Spatial planning could be a very useful tool to protect settlements from hazard impacts but its full range of potential is seldom applied or overruled by other priorities. It is of interest to observe how human beings have dealt with various natural hazards since the beginning of societies, first of all to understand motivations, and secondly to use this knowledge for new adaptation concepts, including potential impacts of Climate Change. The decision making processes that lead to hazard adaptation concepts are one of the key foci, as well as the possibilities and feasibilities to integrate Climate Change adaptation concepts. Concrete examples of human increases in vulnerabilities and the development of adaptation concepts are given from a case study in the Baltic Sea Region.

Climate Change Adaptation Measures

As a result of training of young scientists in Finland and Vietnam, scientific field investigations, environmental and climate change impact modeling and the scenario workshops with local stakeholders first climate change adaptation measures were developed for the two cases studies in Vietnam. The adaptation measures have a sectoral approach and are according to timescales of implementation. The adaptation measures are funded mainly by national budgets of the respective research institutions and environmental authorities.

A methodological concept for territorial impact assessment applied to three EU environmental policy elements

EU policies require either impact assessment or evaluation, depending on the character of the policy elements. A relatively new requirement is the need to assess the territorial impacts of a policy as proposed in the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) and promoted by the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) 2006 programme. Territorial impact assessment (TIA) is defined as “a tool for assessing the impact of spatial development against spatial policy objectives or prospects for an area” (European Communities 2000). This paper summarises and further develops basic work on TIA and presents a methodological concept and the first results of such a TIA approach, applying it to EU environmental policy (civil protection, water, biodiversity).KurzfassungFür EU-Politiken sind entweder Wirkungseinschätzungen oder aber Evaluationen vorgeschrieben, je nach Gegenstand der Politik. Relativ neu ist die Vorgabe, die räumlichen Auswirkungen einer Politik abzuschätzen, wie es im Europäischen Raumentwicklungskonzept (EUREK) vorgeschlagen und vom ESPON 2006 Programm unterstützt wurde. Derartige Raumwirksamkeitseinschätzungen sollen dazu dienen, die voraussichtlichen Auswirkungen einer Politik auf die Entwicklung von Räumen zu ermitteln, und zwar mit Blick auf raumordnungspolitische Zielsetzungen oder deren Zukunftsaussichten (European Communities 2000). Der Beitrag beschreibt die Grundlagen von Raumwirksamkeitseinschätzungen und entwickelt sie weiter. Er stellt einen methodischen Ansatz und erste Anwendungsergebnisse vor, und zwar am Beispiel der EU-Umweltpolitikbereiche Zivilschutz, Wasser und Biodiversität.

Impacts of Climate Change on the Thanh Hoa Province

The most important climate change impacts in the Thanh Hoa province are increasing temperatures and precipitation during the rainy season. Dry seasons on the other hand have been decreasing precipitation which actually leads to water shortages in some areas. The rising sea level causes salinization of coastal aquifers. Along with this goes a strong socio-economic development of the entire province, leading to a higher water demand as well as risks to recharge areas. The detailed assessment of aquifers as well as water balance calculations has been started as a basis to build scenarios for future water supply. These scenarios take both climate change models and the impacts of socio-economic development into account and support the development and implementation of climate change adaptation strategies in close cooperation with local stakeholders.

Impacts of Climate Change on the Ba Ria–Vung Tau Province

The Ba Ria–Vung Tau province is both an important industrial area and tourism hot spot. The development of these two sectors has led to substantial stresses to the environment, especially water quality and quantity. The socio-economic development remains at a high pace. The natural salinization of aquifers might become more important due to future increase of groundwater demand. Detailed water resource and balances were started, also taking climate change impacts and socio-development impacts into account. These form the basis to build future development and impact scenarios to develop and implement climate change adaptation measures in close cooperation with local stakeholders.