Case study – Kalundborg
Read about the
citizen's summit in Kalundborg
The study area (14.000 hectare) includes a peninsula (Reersø), a large lake Tissø (1233 hectare), a large near-shore and low-lying summer cottage area and also permanent habitation, large agricultural areas, nature resorts, ground- and surfacewater interests, tourist and cultural assets. Further more the land behind the coastline has delta-like characters which makes the area vulnerable to extreme weather conditions. Also the area includes infrastructur such as roads, sewerages, water supply and draining assets. The case study area has a coastline and lowland, which are threaten by rising of the sea level and changes in precipitation.
This in all makes the pilot area eminent to illustrate different
climate change impacts scenarios including the balancing between
different interests according to climate change adaptation and
implementation of the EU flood directive, the water frame directive and
the habitat directive.
The case study is collaboration between The Municipality of
Kalundborg, The Danish Border of Technology (DBT) and Geological Survey
of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS).
The Municipality of Kalundborg contributes to the partnership through
involvement from the EU-Office, the Planning, Building &
Environment Department and by being subject to the case study having a
hands-on interaction between stakeholders and public spatial planners
as well as politicians.
DBT will head the process of developing the stakeholder dialogue
methodology focused at climate change impacts and local implementation
of adaptation measures. DBT will educate staff and provide support for
partners carrying out local scenario workshops. The scenario workshop
has first been carried out in Kalundborg and subsequently adjusted and
transferred to other partner countries. The scenario workshop in
Kalundborg has been followed up by a citizens’ summit. Read more about
the citizen's summit
The DBT will prepare a manual for a course to local planners on how to carry out scenario workshops on climate change adaptation. This will be demonstrated at a dissemination seminar for local planners and administrative staff from the partner countries.
GEUS will provide scientific data and backup for the two other Danish partners (Kalundborg Municipality and Danish Board of Technology). GEUS will perform simulations with integrated hydrological models (incl. groundwater/surface water interaction) based on results from climate change and green house gas emission scenarios selected by the project. These simulations will demonstrate threats to human and environmental health, and the need for protection strategies in areas selected in cooperation with Kalundborg Municipality, the Danish Board of Technology and the regional authority "Environment Centre Nykøbing". The investigations will include flooding, groundwater quantity/quality, and associated ecosystem issues in case study areas and relate the findings to the relevant EU directives adopted for protection of human and environmental health. GEUS will perform investigations in two catchments on the islands "Zealand" and "Falster" located in the western part of the Baltic Sea.
Progress:
* GEUS produced calculations that describes the consequences of the
increasing precipitation and rising sea level in the case area. (Spring
and summer 2009)
* Kalundborg Municipality and The Danish Board of Technology hosted a
two-day scenario workshop that presented local stakeholders to
different future scenarios and allowed the stakeholders to develop
different visions of how to deal with climate change in the future.
(The 21st of October and the 11th of November)
* Kalundborg
Municipality hosted the 1st International BaltCICA Conference
* The Danish Board of Technology and Kalundborg Municipality has held a
citizen
summit where 350 citizens debated how Kalundborg Municipality should
adapt to the climate changes. The purpose of the summit was to
present different ways of handling climate change in the case area
(inspired by the visions from the scenario workshop) to the citizens
and make them vote for their favourite approach. Knowing what the
citizens want will allow decision-makers to make a more informed
decision.
Scenario workshop:
During the scenario workshop the following scenarios where presented to
local stakeholders. The three future scenarios represents three
fundamentally different ways of responding to climate changes:
A basic scenario or “laissez-faire” scenario based on the assumption that it is not possible to do anything special in advance to alleviate the impact of the future climate changes beyond what is economically achievable. Initiatives will be taken ad hoc.
A so-called “protection scenario” based on an attempt to protect all of the region's interests as much as possible, including residential areas, infrastructure, commerce and agriculture against the consequences of future climate changes. Initiatives will be launched in order to protect existing interests even if this has negative consequences for the environment and nature.
A so-called “adaptation scenario” based on the need to attempt to adapt to future climate changes rather than fight against them. Current use of land will be re-evaluated and more space allocated to wetlands. The scenario also assumes that we will give considerable consideration to our environment and nature.
The three future scenarios attempt to show what will happen when the region is exposed to an extreme, but not improbable, weather situation in addition to general climate change. The scenarios are fictional stories of the future, written by a fictional journalist at the local, fictional online newspaper. The stories take a journalist’s critically neutral stance. However, unavoidably, they are slightly subjective as the description is not scientific but a report of the situation seen through the eyes of an ordinary person.
During the scenario workshop the participating stakeholders created
four visions that described various ways of dealing with climate
changes. The visions spanned from turning existing farmland and
built-on-areas into wetlands to the establishment of large dikes in
order to protect those same areas. The economic, social and
environmental consequences of the various visions proposed has been
further examined and the results has formed the basis for a citizen
summit
about climate adaptation in Kalundborg Municipality.
Political process:
The process from IPCC scenarios to a concrete local adaptation plan has
been as shown on this picture:
The IPCC scenarios have been downscaled to the case area. Based on this
data three alternative future scenarios have been developed. These
scenarios have been presented to local stakeholders who discussed how
to plan for a changing climate during a scenario workshop. The
different proposals from the scenario workshop was then thoroughly
analyzed and this analysis was an important input to the citizen summit
where 350 local citizens discussed and voted on how Kalundborg
Municipality should act regarding climate change adaptation. Based on
the output of the citizen summit a climate change adaptation plan has
been made. It is to be approved in the beginning of 2012 and then fully
implemented.
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