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A National Knowledge Centre for Climate Change Adaptation
Following SMHI’s work with climate information, the Swedish
Government requested the institute to establish a national centre of
knowledge for climate change adaptation. Inaugurated in 2012, the
Swedish National Knowledge Centre for Climate Change Adaptation
(the centre) will serve as a node where knowledge on climate change
adaptation is collected, developed and conveyed to different parts of
society. The centre will compile regional, national and international
knowledge on climate change adaptation. The intention is also to
increase dialogue with different stakeholders, in order to enhance
understanding of current and future needs for knowledge within the
broad field of climate change adaptation. The Swedish web portal for
climate change adaptation will serve as the main information channel.
Naturally, the centre will also provide arenas for discussions of diffi-
culties and solutions related to climate change adaptation.
With the centre, cooperation and dialogue with other actors in society
has intensified, focusing on issues concerning capacity building on
climate change uncertainties. This includes a continuous dialogue with
the county administrative boards and other national authorities which
contribute knowledge from their fields of expertise. Other important
partners are a range of knowledge producers and stakeholders such as
universities, industry and trade associations. Visualization of informa-
tion is appreciated by users as a method for provision of appropriate
decision support to various actors in society. Appropriate communica-
tion with decision-makers in different ways is fundamental overall. One
form of communication that has shown much promise is interactive
decision support in the inflatable Geodome theatre, in which people can
be part of an interactive visualization. A climate expert is present at all
times and ready to answer any questions and to give new perspectives
on the presented subject by providing information in the 180° by 135°
projection inside the Geodome.
The target group for the Swedish climate change adapta-
tion web portal has so far been officers at national, regional
and local level in Sweden. With the portal as the main
information channel for the centre, the target groups are
now more numerous. Also actors in Swedish society such
as businesses, universities, non-governmental organiza-
tions and the public are now targeted by the centre and
the web portal. An important objective for the centre is to
categorize the existing climate change adaptation process
tools, developed by researchers and decision-makers, rele-
vant to the needs for different target groups.
To facilitate the transfer of knowledge between research
projects, the centre involves dialogues with and efforts
within the climate change adaptation projects in which
SMHI is involved. One of those is the Swedish Research
Programme on Climate, Impacts and Adaptation, which
deals with how climate change, economy, climate change
impacts and climate change adaptation are related globally,
on the regional scale and locally. The programme aims to
develop actionable new knowledge, methods and processes
for climate change adaptation efforts. This is facilitated by
involving users more in dialogue than is often the case in
research efforts. Another example of dialogue that the centre
engages in concerns adaptation efforts around the Baltic Sea,
which are being carried out in the Baltadapt flagship project
under the European Union (EU) Strategy for the Baltic Sea
Region. SMHI is a partner in the Baltadapt project, which
aims to produce an adaptation strategy for the region, focus-
ing on the regional sea and coastal areas. An important part
of the strategy is the collaboration between the Russian
Federation and the EU countries around the Baltic Sea.
The inflatable Geodome theatre, which is used for the communication of climate services
Image: SMHI