Adaptation to climate change in small German municipalities: Sparse knowledge and weak adaptive capacities

Abstract

Understanding local adaptation to climate change is critical for the overall success of adaptation practices in Europe and around the world. Although it becomes more urgent by the day, existing literature does not adequately touch upon the topic of climate adaptation in small municipalities. This article addresses this gap. It explores whether adaptation measures in small municipalities are overlooked in research focused on other aspects of urban environment, or whether such measures are indeed inadequate. Based on a large quantitative survey among Bavarian municipalities (n = 401), we conducted 11 qualitative case studies to answer the following two questions. First, how active are small municipalities in Bavaria, Germany, in climate change adaptation? Second, why and how do municipal adaptation frontrunners implement adaptation measures and what lessons can we learn from their experience? Our findings confirm that small municipalities rarely adapt to climate change, and when they do, their actions usually target water‐related issues. Most often measures are responsive and pragmatic, instead of being preventive and transformative. The fact that the small municipality representatives that we have interviewed were not able to distinguish between adaptation and mitigation measures clearly illustrates the lack of local adaptation capacities. We conclude that national funding for municipal adaptation coordinators or networks is a promising way to improve local capacities.

Intentionality and visibility in state- and society-led climate approaches: towards a more comprehensive understanding of local adaptation initiatives

“…Table 1 sets out how we can categorise any activity that reduces the potential impact of climate threats (such as heatwaves, droughts, flooding, storms, landslides, invasive species and threats to biodiversity) as a particular type of adaptation, according to which actor undertakes it and the extent to which it is intentional or visible. Not only does this broader interpretation ensure that we shine a spotlight on a more comprehensive range of initiatives, but we also suggest that it should reveal important gaps and differences in adaptation approaches, which themselves highlight structural differences and inequalities across jurisdictions (Buschmann et al, 2022). This is particularly the case in contexts where public bodies are unable or unwilling to lead adaptation efforts, and non-state actors have to take on additional responsibilities as a result (Mulwa et al, 2017).…”

“…Recent studies have argued that society-led adaptation is particularly important in smaller municipalities and places where governments have less capacity to improve local resilience through public policies, such as parts of the Global South (Buschmann et al, 2022;Teebken et al, 2023;Bawakyillenuo et al, 2016;Fenton et al, 2017). Societyled adaptation often refers to reactive and small-scale measures that intend to reduce the impact of As is the case with public policies, society-led adaptation initiatives are sometimes intentional and visible and often introduced in direct response to climate impacts.…”

Measuring climate change adaptation policy output: Toward a two‐dimensional approach

“…The sample includes many smaller cities and towns with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants and therefore provides a rather good approximation of the diverse settlement structure in Hessen and Germany. Existing studies have thus far typically focused on larger cities, for example, those with at least 50,000 inhabitants (e.g., Araos et al, 2016; Grafakos et al, 2019; Lesnikowski et al, 2019; Otto, Göpfert, & Thieken, 2021; Otto, Kern, et al, 2021), which neglects smaller municipalities, even though the latter are home to a substantial share of the world's population (but see, e.g., Bausch & Koziol, 2020; Buschmann et al, 2022; Campos et al, 2017; Reckien et al, 2018; Wood et al, 2014). We conduct a factor analysis to validate the CAPI, followed by cluster and regression analyses to explore the patterns revealed by our measurement approach and their potential determinants.…”

Landscape-Scale Long-Term Drought Prevalence Mapping for Small Municipalities Adaptation, the Czech Republic Case Study

“…Regardless of national initiatives and adaptation strategies, municipalities carry a legally binding responsibility of spatial planning and the final adaptation takes place mainly at the municipal level [25]. Hence, this scale is critical for effective climate adaptation [25][26][27][28]. However, most researchers focus on adaptation of built up areas, i.e., large cities [29,30], rather than on rural landscapes, which are mostly the responsibility of small municipalities [25,27,29].…”

“…Hence, this scale is critical for effective climate adaptation [25][26][27][28]. However, most researchers focus on adaptation of built up areas, i.e., large cities [29,30], rather than on rural landscapes, which are mostly the responsibility of small municipalities [25,27,29]. Compared to the big cities, small municipalities are more vulnerable due to their lack of local adaptation capacities, i.e., scarce financial resources and workforce, limited authority and competencies, and limited access to scientific knowledge and external experts [26][27][28]31].…”