Local communities addressing extreme weather: Cases from Finland and Sweden
Valkjärvi, Mark (2023)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024053119176
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024053119176
Tiivistelmä
The aim of the thesis was to discover how local communities in the Baltic Sea Region are addressing extreme weather that stems from climate change. Case study is trying to answer how local communities in the Baltic Sea Region manage, prepare and plan for extreme weather that rises from the climate crisis. This is analyzed based on the theory of crisis management in multiple steps. The client is the NEEDS project that aims to produce Case study in set preferences for their needs.
Theory covers extreme weather and climate change, local communities’ management, crisis management theory from that is the theoretical backbone for study and related theories like resilience, societal security. Crisis management theory is from Politics of Crisis Management (Boin,t’Hart, Stern and Sundelius 2016) which was chosen by Case study client to make comparable other case studies in NEEDs project.
The method of research is qualitative case study based on interviews with experts in chosen local communities from the Baltic Sea Region. Two experts from the local communities were interviewed and findings were analyzed based on theoretical frame build from Boin et al (2016). Interviews were done as half-structured theme interviews.
Results show that local communities are addressing extreme weather effects rising from climate change. Main tools are urban planning and citizen involvement. However, there is a clear limit of what local communities can achieve with their resources. A lot of international and national cooperation is used by them to learn from other local communities and share effective ways to cope with extreme weather effects. Floods and heat waves were the most threatening effects based on interviews.
Main conclusions from study are that extreme weather effects originating from climate change is a slow-burning crisis that needs to be addressed in local communities for decades to come. The perspective of crisis management seems to fit quite well. They address issues, and their work already shares similarities to how crises can be managed even though local communities might not see it as a crisis as a whole.
Theory covers extreme weather and climate change, local communities’ management, crisis management theory from that is the theoretical backbone for study and related theories like resilience, societal security. Crisis management theory is from Politics of Crisis Management (Boin,t’Hart, Stern and Sundelius 2016) which was chosen by Case study client to make comparable other case studies in NEEDs project.
The method of research is qualitative case study based on interviews with experts in chosen local communities from the Baltic Sea Region. Two experts from the local communities were interviewed and findings were analyzed based on theoretical frame build from Boin et al (2016). Interviews were done as half-structured theme interviews.
Results show that local communities are addressing extreme weather effects rising from climate change. Main tools are urban planning and citizen involvement. However, there is a clear limit of what local communities can achieve with their resources. A lot of international and national cooperation is used by them to learn from other local communities and share effective ways to cope with extreme weather effects. Floods and heat waves were the most threatening effects based on interviews.
Main conclusions from study are that extreme weather effects originating from climate change is a slow-burning crisis that needs to be addressed in local communities for decades to come. The perspective of crisis management seems to fit quite well. They address issues, and their work already shares similarities to how crises can be managed even though local communities might not see it as a crisis as a whole.