Territorial governance of managed retreat in Sweden: addressing challenges

Gunnel Göransson (), Lisa Van Well, David Bendz, Per Danielsson and Jim Hedfors
Additional contact information
Gunnel Göransson: Swedish Geotechnical Institute
Lisa Van Well: Swedish Geotechnical Institute
David Bendz: Swedish Geotechnical Institute
Per Danielsson: Swedish Geotechnical Institute
Jim Hedfors: Swedish Geotechnical Institute

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2021, vol. 11, issue 3, No 9, 376-391

Abstract: Abstract Many climate adaptation options currently being discussed in Sweden to meet the challenge of surging seas and inland flooding advocate holding the line through various hard and soft measures to stabilize the shoreline, while managed retreat is neither considered as feasible option nor has it been explicitly researched in Sweden. However, failure to consider future flooding from climate change in municipal planning may have dangerous and costly consequences when the water does come. We suggest that managed retreat practices are challenging in Sweden, not only due to public opinions but also because of a deficit of uptake of territorial knowledge by decision-makers and difficulties in realizing flexible planning options of the shoreline. A territorial governance framework was used as a heuristic to explore the challenges to managed retreat in four urban case studies (three municipalities and one county) representing different territorial, hydrological and oceanographic environments. This was done through a series of participatory stakeholder workshops. The analysis using a territorial governance framework based on dimensions of coordination, integration, mobilization, adaptation and realization presents variations in how managed retreat barriers and opportunities are perceived among case study sites, mainly due to the differing territorial or place-based challenges. The results also indicate common challenges regardless of the case study site, including coordination challenges and unclear responsibility, the need for integrated means of addressing goal conflicts and being able to adapt flexibly to existing regulations and plans. Yet rethinking how managed retreat could boost community resilience and help to implement long-term visions was seen as a way to deal with some of the territorial challenges.

Keywords: Case studies; Climate adaptation; Flooding; Sea level rise; Governance; Managed retreat (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13412-021-00696-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:11:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s13412-021-00696-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13412

DOI: 10.1007/s13412-021-00696-z

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences is currently edited by Walter A. Rosenbaum

More articles in Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences from Springer, Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().