Advancing Coordination Between DRM and CCA in Integrated Flood Risk Management
Abstract
Flood hazards in coastal regions induce risks toward lives, property, economy and the environment. In need of sustainable and holistic actions to reduce risks, these should include innovative Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) measures. While differing on important parameters such as political commitment, awareness and uncertainty of the hazard/risk, commonalities between DRM and CCA can also be identified that affect human settlement, institutional adaptation, and the economy. This supports coordination of mitigation and adaptation measures to create resilience and sustainable solutions that take into account present and future outcomes. Adaptation must be integrated in existing policy making and be a planning process priority to become effective, however. In relation to coastal hazards in Denmark, deficits are identified in how DRM is brought into effect, e.g. though lack of planning and awareness. This, we argue, may be the golden opportunity to improve the national DRM-CCA integration. Past coastal risk mitigation and adaptation in Denmark only focused on structural measures. Due to its long coastline this is neither a sustainable nor an economically feasible solution ahead, and emphasis on non-structural measures is crucial. From qualitative research, we show that for the Danish case this should include: new policies, legislative changes, a higher degree of preparedness, and an improved awareness among stakeholders and civil society. The shift towards non-structural measures is hampered by lack in coordination that should be improved to agree e.g. on an acceptable risk definition and to avoid duplicating efforts. To advance awareness and coordination between DRM and CCA and to improve measures, a bottom-up approach could by initiated by civil society using recent flood events to exert pressure on the national government, and in a top-down approach the government could identify the needs among the civil society to include these in the decision-making process.
Info
Other-Unknown, 2016
UN SDG Classification
DK Main Research Area
Science/Technology
