Department Environmental Social Sciences

Climate change adaptation strategies in Switzerland

© Kecko 2013

This project addresses the research question on how local climate change adaptation strategies are designed and may evolve. We strongly focus on the impact of extreme events on the design and policy formulation of adaptation measures. Climate change adaptation becomes nowadays particularly crucial for the resource water, mainly in relation with the principles outlined in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) addressing the challenge of coordinating the use of, and the protection of and from the resource water. The protection from the resource water directly links to flood events and natural disasters that may be impacted by global climate change. Furthermore, the integration of actors in different policy sectors, political entities and decision-making levels can be seen as a way how to improve the adaptive capacity within the water sector. Thus, integrated water resources management constitutes one major challenge of current and future generations when it comes to find sustainable responses to climate change impacts. We therefore analyze adaptation to climate change in the case of flood risk management, and compare various actors’ preferences for measures and measure mixes with the current implemented measures as a contribution to IWRM.

Project team

Prof. Dr. Karin Ingold Group Leader, Group: PEGO +41 58 765 5676 Send Mail

External team members

Anik Glaus (Institute of Political Science, Universität Bern)

Prof. em. Dr. Gunter Stephan (Department of Economics, Universität Bern)

Prof. Dr. Rolf Weingartner (Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Universität Bern)

Prof. Dr. Philippe Thalmann (Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Universität Bern)

Publications

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   0 => Snowflake\Publications\Domain\Model\Publicationprototypepersistent entity (uid=20570, pid=124)
      originalId => protected20570 (integer)
      authors => protected'Ingold, K.; Gavilano, A.' (34 chars)
      title => protected'Under what conditions does an extreme event deploy its focal power? Toward c
         ollaborative governance in Swiss flood risk management
' (130 chars) journal => protected'In: Bynander, F.; Nohrstedt, D. (Eds.), Collaborative crisis manag
         ement. Inter-organizational approaches to extreme events
' (132 chars) year => protected2020 (integer) volume => protected0 (integer) issue => protected'' (0 chars) startpage => protected'132' (3 chars) otherpage => protected'147' (3 chars) categories => protected'' (0 chars) description => protected'In this chapter we study the longer-term response of a national government t
         o natural disasters. We are interested in when and how collaborative governa
         nce arrangements spark new national flood prevention policies. Our understan
         ding of collaborative governance not only includes public and private actors
          that are involved in a complex network (see Nohrstedt 2015) but also the la
         rger institutional setting as well as regulations in the domain of flood ris
         k management. In other words, we conceive the full range from politics and p
         olity to policies when defining collaborative risk management (see also Drie
         ssen et al. 2012). For national flood prevention this concretely means that
         decision making and implementation processes are designed multilevel and cro
         ss-sectoral, that competences and responsibilities are shared between differ
         ent jurisdictions and policy subsystems, and that policies and regulations r
         eflect this horizontal and vertical integration of actors and institutions (
         Ingold et al. 2018; Ingold 2017). [...]
' (1027 chars) serialnumber => protected'' (0 chars) doi => protected'10.4324/9780429244308-11' (24 chars) uid => protected20570 (integer) _localizedUid => protected20570 (integer)modified _languageUid => protectedNULL _versionedUid => protected20570 (integer)modified pid => protected124 (integer)
1 => Snowflake\Publications\Domain\Model\Publicationprototypepersistent entity (uid=10591, pid=124) originalId => protected10591 (integer) authors => protected'Ingold, K.' (15 chars) title => protected'How to create and preserve social capital in climate adaptation policies: a
         network approach
' (92 chars) journal => protected'Ecological Economics' (20 chars) year => protected2017 (integer) volume => protected131 (integer) issue => protected'' (0 chars) startpage => protected'414' (3 chars) otherpage => protected'424' (3 chars) categories => protected'social capital; climate change adaptation; policy analysis; social network a
         nalysis
' (83 chars) description => protected'The processes and impacts of climate change require adaptation through what
         can be described as horizontal and vertical structures of actors' integratio
         n. In climate adaptation and natural resource management literature, this st
         ructural component is often related to social capital, which is defined in v
         arious ways but usually refers to a public good that is built and fostered w
         ithin a network of social relations. While hypotheses about social capital i
         n networks are well studied in network literature, here, I argue that they s
         hould be reflected and tested in the particular context of climate change ad
         aptation policy. I ask: how do communities affected by climate change and th
         e broad range of actors involved in the design of climate adaptation policie
         s build social relationships? And, how do they manage to maintain those rela
         tions over time?<BR/> To answer these questions, climate adaptation policies
          in six Swiss mountain regions are investigated via social network analysis.
          Hypotheses about the creation and preservation of weak versus strong ties u
         nder the particular setting of Swiss federalism and climate-affected local c
         ommunities are tested. Results confirm that the creation of weak ties, such
         as one-way information transfer, can lead to the establishment of mutual col
         laboration relations over time. Such mutual and reciprocal relations can the
         n more easily be activated by local communities to produce both short-term r
         esponses and long-term solutions to climate change impacts.
' (1503 chars) serialnumber => protected'0921-8009' (9 chars) doi => protected'10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.08.033' (30 chars) uid => protected10591 (integer) _localizedUid => protected10591 (integer)modified _languageUid => protectedNULL _versionedUid => protected10591 (integer)modified pid => protected124 (integer)
2 => Snowflake\Publications\Domain\Model\Publicationprototypepersistent entity (uid=10646, pid=124) originalId => protected10646 (integer) authors => protected'Balsiger,&nbsp;J.; Ingold,&nbsp;K.' (34 chars) title => protected'In the Eye of the Beholder: network location and sustainability perception i
         n flood prevention
' (94 chars) journal => protected'Environmental Policy and Governance' (35 chars) year => protected2016 (integer) volume => protected26 (integer) issue => protected'4' (1 chars) startpage => protected'242' (3 chars) otherpage => protected'256' (3 chars) categories => protected'collaborative flood management; situated knowledge; social network analysis
         ; sustainable development perceptions; Switzerland
' (126 chars) description => protected'The aim of this paper is to investigate how sustainability perceptions are e
         mergent properties of collaborative networks in flood governance in Switzerl
         and. In recent decades, the impact of global warming and multiple stresses o
         n water regimes has influenced the design of new approaches to flood risk ma
         nagement, especially in Western Europe. The use of non-structural measures s
         uch as planning tools and watershed campaigns indicates a change from techno
         cratic to more integrated flood governance perspectives. Flood governance is
          increasingly influenced by the principle of sustainability, understood as s
         tronger horizontal integration of its social, economic and environmental dim
         ensions. The paper examines the integration of sustainability in the design
         of flood prevention and policies, suggesting that integration relates to par
         ticipating actors’ perceptions of sustainability and that these perception
         s are reflected in network structures. Focusing on four regional case studie
         s, we use survey data and social network analysis to investigate how actors
         relate to each other and how they rank sustainability indicators. Results sh
         ow that sustainability perceptions differ strongly across cases, and tend to
          be more balanced (assigning equal importance to environmental, economic and
          social indicators) within and sometimes even across actor types and sectors
         . We find that while actors in central network positions tend to have more b
         alanced sustainability perceptions, context- and project-specific factors im
         pact sustainability perceptions even more.
' (1562 chars) serialnumber => protected'1756-932X' (9 chars) doi => protected'10.1002/eet.1715' (16 chars) uid => protected10646 (integer) _localizedUid => protected10646 (integer)modified _languageUid => protectedNULL _versionedUid => protected10646 (integer)modified pid => protected124 (integer)
3 => Snowflake\Publications\Domain\Model\Publicationprototypepersistent entity (uid=7603, pid=124) originalId => protected7603 (integer) authors => protected'Ingold,&nbsp;K.' (15 chars) title => protected'How involved are they really? A comparative network analysis of the institut
         ional drivers of local actor inclusion
' (114 chars) journal => protected'Land Use Policy' (15 chars) year => protected2014 (integer) volume => protected39 (integer) issue => protected'' (0 chars) startpage => protected'376' (3 chars) otherpage => protected'387' (3 chars) categories => protected'land use change; collaborative policy networks; mountain regions; local comm
         unities; social network analysis
' (108 chars) description => protected'Different socio-economic and environmental drivers lead local communities in
          mountain regions to adapt land use practices and engage in protection polic
         ies. The political system also has to develop new approaches to adapt to tho
         se drivers. Local actors are the target group of those policy approaches, an
         d the question arises of if and how much those actors are consulted or even
         integrated into the design of local land use and protection policies. This a
         rticle addresses this question by comparing seven different case studies in
         Swiss mountain regions. Through a formal social network analysis, the inclus
         ion of local actors in collaborative policy networks is investigated and com
         pared to the involvement of other stakeholders representing the next higher
         sub-national or national decisional levels. Results show that there is a sig
         nificant difference (1) in how local actors are embedded compared to other s
         takeholders; and (2) between top-down versus bottom-up designed policy proce
         sses.
' (993 chars) serialnumber => protected'0264-8377' (9 chars) doi => protected'10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.01.013' (32 chars) uid => protected7603 (integer) _localizedUid => protected7603 (integer)modified _languageUid => protectedNULL _versionedUid => protected7603 (integer)modified pid => protected124 (integer)
Ingold, K.; Gavilano, A. (2020) Under what conditions does an extreme event deploy its focal power? Toward collaborative governance in Swiss flood risk management, In: Bynander, F.; Nohrstedt, D. (Eds.), Collaborative crisis management. Inter-organizational approaches to extreme events, 132-147, doi:10.4324/9780429244308-11, Institutional Repository
Ingold, K. (2017) How to create and preserve social capital in climate adaptation policies: a network approach, Ecological Economics, 131, 414-424, doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.08.033, Institutional Repository
Balsiger, J.; Ingold, K. (2016) In the Eye of the Beholder: network location and sustainability perception in flood prevention, Environmental Policy and Governance, 26(4), 242-256, doi:10.1002/eet.1715, Institutional Repository
Ingold, K. (2014) How involved are they really? A comparative network analysis of the institutional drivers of local actor inclusion, Land Use Policy, 39, 376-387, doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.01.013, Institutional Repository

Metz, F.; Glaus, A. (2019). Integrated Water Resources Management and Policy Integration: Lessons from 169 Years of Flood Policies in Switzerland. Water, 11(6), 1173. DOI: 10.3390/w11061173.

Ingold, K.; Zimmermann, W. (2011) How and why forest managers adapt to socio-economic changes: a case study analysis in Swiss forest enterprises. Forest Policy and Economics 13: 97-103. DOI:10.1016/j.forpol.2010.06.003.

Ingold, K.; Balsiger, J.; Hirschi, C. (2010) Climate change in Mountain Regions: How local communities adapt to extreme events. Local Environment 15(7), 651-661. DOI:10.1080/13549839.2010.498811.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Karin Ingold Group Leader, Group: PEGO +41 58 765 5676 Send Mail

Information

Project Start: September 2014 – Juli 2020

Funding: Sinergia SNF, OCCR, IPW