| 1. |
- Persson Pavlović, Erik, 1985-
(författare)
-
The weakest link : Governing the risk of floods and dam failure in Sweden
- 2023
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The effects of climate change are already being felt today, and future effects, which will be determined by the readiness and resolve of today’s world leaders, are fraught with high levels of complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity, and transboundary effects – characteristics of systemic risk. Since climate change is seen as a threat multiplier, the risks that might be impacted by climate change, such as floods and dam failure, will be affected by systemic risk characteristics as well. Recent literature on risk governance calls for a more inclusive approach to address the challenges of systemic risks. Sweden has adopted the Sendai Framework, which aims to reduce disaster risk and strengthen societal resilience through a more people-centered approach. Sweden can be expected to have the resources and institutional structures needed to be able to implement the framework at a high level. However, evaluations of recent crises have shown a discrepancy between what can be expected and actual performance. This thesis aims to increase the understanding of contextual barriers to and drivers of inclusive risk governance, with a focus on responsibilities, (mandated) collaboration, and stakeholder participation, as an approach to increase societal resilience against disaster and systemic risk. The aim is reached by studying flood-related systemic risks and their governance. Three distinct, qualitative case studies focusing on different aspects of the Swedish disaster risk reduction and risk governance systems in relation to the risk of floods and dam failure are the empirical foundation for the four papers that are appended in the thesis. The thesis concludes that there is a need for a change in how resilience is framed, as part of a paradigm shift to a discourse that views resilience as a measure of adaptive capacity, and a change in how systemic risks should be understood and governed, as part of a paradigm shift to an inclusive risk governance framework.
|
|
| 2. |
- Andersson-Sköld, Yvonne, et al.
(författare)
-
Landslide risk management : A brief overview and example from Sweden of current situation and climate change
- 2013
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. - : Elsevier. - 2212-4209. ; 3:March, s. 44-61
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Landslide risk is a function of the probability of the event and its consequences. Previous research has shown that preventive measures to reduce the risk are preferred over reactive measures but, especially in developing countries, rarely undertaken. A contributing factor is the lack of evidence that preventive measures pay. This study includes a brief overview of landslide risk management in general and an investigation of the present risk management situation in Sweden based on interviews in 11 municipalities complemented with interviews in Norway. The result shows that climate change has become part of the general awareness and started to be taken into account in the municipal spatial planning. Landslide susceptibility maps and databases are useful tools in the complex spatial planning. The results indicate that the application of landslide susceptibility and risk maps as previously applied for preventive measures and spatial planning in the landslide prone area Gota alv river valley have been cost effective. Improved documentation and more active communication among different stakeholders would, however, contribute to more effective landslide management.
|
|
| 3. |
- Johansson, Magnus, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
-
How to measure efficiency in risk prevention?
- 2012
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Risk assessment methods form corner stones in the striving to reduce risks and threats to human life and society. Proposed actions can be physical or non-physical and adopted or declined after political evaluation, with consideration taken to available resources and estimated effect on risk. To optimize and avoid regrettable actions, decision-makers are in need of well-founded analyses of how efficient different options might be. Analytically, there are several possible steps that can contribute.Firstly, the correlation between a measure and its effect should be based on causality, which often is difficult to establish quantitatively. High frequent accidents (e.g. traffic) can normally be treated statistically , while low frequent accidents with severe consequences (e.g. natural hazards) are more restricted to qualitative descriptions of correlation. Systematic monitoring of injury and damage data and gathering into databases, are a crucial activity for causality valuation. Secondly, economic valuation of effect is an important contribution in a cost-benefit perspective. Thirdly, a measure often brings several different effects and some may fall outside the actual purpose. An additional problem is how to handle effects that exert varied influence on different stakeholders or social groups in society. Fourthly, certain criteria are required for final prioritization. For instance, in analysis of goal fulfillment, effects are compared with politically decided quantified goals.In cases where basic data from steps 1-3 are incomplete, alternative criteria like “acceptable risk” might be necessary to agree about politically. To use similar approaches on how to describe and quantify effect correlations, promote gathered efforts at local level where risk reducing measures are decided upon by different actors and with regard to diverse local conditions. Tests of suitable methods and approaches to measure efficiency of planned or accomplished actions in gain for risk prevention, are described and discussed.
|
|
| 4. |
- Persson, Erik, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
-
Flood Warning in a Swedish Local Risk Management Context
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Disaster Prevention and Management. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 0965-3562 .- 1758-6100. ; 24:3, s. 383-396
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims to explore how local early warning systems (EWS) for floods are established at the municipality level in Sweden. The study also aims to analyse the role of EWSs in a risk management context. The overall purpose of this study is to elucidate how and to what extent the adoption of local EWSs can generate value added benefits throughout the wider risk management process.Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with supervisors at each municipality in order to depict how local EWS are established at the municipality level in Sweden. The interviews went through a content analysis with respect to theory on EWS and theory on the risk management process.The possible effects from an EWS is not only reduced flood losses but also potential spinoff. The possibility of spinoff effects from the system, but also the mitigating effectiveness in case of a flood is largely dependent on the well-being of the organization and its risk management processes.This study widens the understanding of the value of an EWS and that the organizational culture and state of risk management system has influence on the availability of such value. Identifying the potential added value from EWSs is important from a more general disaster risk reduction perspective, as it helps to further motivate implementation of proactive risk management measures. This knowledge can be of help to others who investigate the possibilities of investing in EWSs.
|
|
