Navigating Towards Local Climate Adaptation by Utilizing Networks and Boundary Spanners

Climate change knowledge is often produced by natural science research, and the landscape of different climate models and studies of effects for natural conditions (flooding, landslides) is not necessarily easy to navigate in. Studies have found local authorities do not necessarily take the information into consideration (Orderud and Kelman 2011). Thus, this knowledge has to be translated by different actors, like planners and environmental civil servants, to be included in the knowledge basis for local planning- and decision making. Hence, there is a need for intersectoral learning for climate adaptation to be successful. As a consequence, various horizontal and/or vertical networks have been developed in order to compensate for the challenges in relation to climate change knowledge and the traditional sector organization. Based upon a comparative case-study, this paper presents how local actors in municipalities in Germany, Sweden and Norway use networks as a discussion arena for climate adaptation, and how the networks contribute to navigate in the complex landscape of climate change relevant knowledge, and to translate it into local context. Thus, paper illuminates how networks contribute to meet the challenges of local climate change adaptation, and thereby increase local adaptive capacity.