Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic: Perspectives from the Barents Area

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Chapter 9 · Adaptation options

Table 9.4 Examples of adaptations in use in the Barents area.

Category

Current strategies

• Drainage pipe dimensions • Flood, fire and avalanche protection • Dam reinforcements • Building and infrastructural reinforcements especially in relation to permafrost • New technologies for societal protection (wildfires, internet warnings of avalanches and floods) • Barents exchange of best practices • Standards and norms • Technological standards • Building codes (e.g. new materials to withstand increased freeze-thaw cycles, snow loads) • Application of best available technologies • Land use planning and zoning • Regulation of access to natural resources (water, fish) • Emergency and rescue regulations and codes • Healthcare instructions and guidelines to prevent spread of new infectious deceases and harmful pests, development of and treatment for the spread of new viruses • Changing insurance policies, incentives by national governments, project funding (e.g. Cities of the Future), corporate funding • Subsidies • Taxes • Voluntary approaches • Incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and new products • Diversification of tourism activities, crop varieties, local food products, and aquaculture • Innovation in organization • Climate projections and improved weather forecasts, agricultural crop development, new cattle fodder • New, innovative solutions for presenting climate change related knowledge to different audiences, stakeholders and decision-makers • Search and rescue, spatial planning regulations, interagency coordination, adaptation research – as a way to build knowledge for supporting adaptation • Enhanced regional cooperation • Timing of production cycles (grazing, planting, harvesting), new fish species, spatial utilization, supplementary feeding of livestock

Engineering technical solutions and innovation; infrastructural improvements

Regulatory mechanisms

Economic mechanisms

Innovation and entrepreneurship; product development and marketing

New knowledge

Institutional structures

Production practices and routines

Cross-sectoral interactions

• Agriculture, fisheries, public sectors

the potential adaptation strategies. Such strategies can only be implemented if they are enabled and activated. It is also necessary to understand the factors that affect the societal, political and economic processes behind the adaptation strategies, and how they affect the potential adaptation options. 9.4.2 Adaptation governance Adaptation processes require governance: governance of the complex,cumulative changes and their impacts.There are many tools in use for this purpose and this is the focus of this section. Cooperation and coordination of adaptation processes are taking place within and across all scales, and the contexts and interactions will drive both the process and outcome. International cooperation in the Barents Region appears to be a powerful tool in adaptation strategic planning and research. Social learning and the transfer of knowledge and best practice

framework conditions, incentives, severity of the projected impacts, human and financial resources available, access to technical, local and expert knowledge, assessment capabilities and the extent to which institutions are enabling. The first of the four dimensions concerns current adaptation strategies in the Barents area (summarized in Table 9.4), while the second concerns factors that initiate and facilitate adaptation processes. The third dimension illustrates barriers and limitations for initiating the adaptation processes, even if the strategies are in place. The fourth dimension, adaptation governance, encompasses the first three dimensions and is crucial for securing implementation of adaptation measures. The time frame in which measures are developed, whether short-term or long-term, becomes important. Together the four dimensions of the adaptation process constitute the adaptation options, and underscore the fact that it is not possible to identify such options just from looking at