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Norway, but several laws and regulations applying to planning proc-
esses incorporate climate change adaptation measures. In terms of
local planning, these include the Planning and Building Act (2009),
the Civil Protection and Civil Defense Act (2010) and the Technical
Regulations under the Planning and Building Act (2010).
The Planning and Building Act provides important planning tools
and a set of measures that can be used to ensure that climate change is
taken into account in the development of new land. It requires munici-
palities to carry out risk and vulnerability assessments as part of the
planning process. The law enables municipalities to define zones that
require special consideration, as mentioned above. The flexibility of
this arrangement allows for the inclusion of areas that are not currently
exposed to risk but may be in the future as a result of climate change.
The Civil Protection and Civil Defense Act underlines the responsibil-
ity of municipalities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their citizens,
and to have warning systems and evacuation procedures in place.
The Technical Regulations under the Planning and Building Act
concerns the physical design and location of buildings and infra-
structure, providing directives for how various types of buildings
should be adjusted to different flood levels. When assessing how
climate change will affect the risk level for flooding, landslides or
higher sea levels, the standards for construction and buildings give
very concrete instructions on how to ensure safety.
Priority 5: Strengthening disaster preparedness and response
A systematic approach to climate change adaptation may not in itself
be sufficient. Extreme weather events will continue to occur and
communities have to be prepared for them. With climate change,
such events may increase, both in scope and frequency, and they may
take place in new areas. Having a system for disaster preparedness is
therefore essential and cannot be disconnected from an overall strat-
egy on climate change adaptation.
Stakeholders in disaster response need to take climate
change into account. Local variations may result in differ-
ent impacts of climate change. Disaster response agencies
may thus face new types of risk in the future, combined
with more of the events they experience today, and should
take local variations into account in their planning.
Invest today for a safer tomorrow
The World Bank and the United Nations (2010) empha-
size the role of prevention, but argue that effective
preventive measures are not always easy to establish. The
causes leading to disasters can be many and complex and
it may be easier to focus on the symptom (for example
a landslide) than on the actual causes (lack of planning,
deforestation, poor construction, etc.). Preventive meas-
ures (especially the inclusion of disaster risk reduction
and climate change adaptation in processes such as spatial
planning) are therefore essential to avoid future disasters.
A systematic approach to climate change adaptation
is a practical way of enhancing the prevention aspect.
By taking the priorities of the HFA as a starting point for
climate change adaptation, it can be seen how closely
linked these two issues are. In addition to extreme
events and disasters, adaptation also covers gradual
changes that will affect communities over time, but
it follows the same underlying principles as disaster
risk reduction. Both are about preventing the unde-
sired consequences of natural hazards, and the main
challenge is to integrate them both into all levels of
community planning. This requires investment, time
and efforts – but it will lead to more resilient communi-
ties in the future, in a changed climate.
Climate projections are an important part of preparedness
Image: Erik Bleken