Climate change : using robustness as a policy response

• This commentary paper deals two issues: There is an insecurity of the predicted climate change and its impact on the built environment and there is a big time gap between the timescale for the climate change predictions and the timescale that is used for making decisions about the built environment. It is advocated that long term decisions for the built environment must be based on reliable predictions and if they are not the decisions will often make more damage than if no decisions were made at all. It is also stated that very few of the stakeholders in the building process have taken any actions to respond to the expected climate change. There is a total discrepancy between the climate change perspective and the stakeholders’ decision making perspective and it is therefore probably more efficient to cope to the current climate situation than to adapt to an uncertain very long-term climate change. For long term climate changes, robustness in the built environment probably is a more valid strategy.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Mitigation

Coping

Adapting

Robustness

Climate change

Building process stakeholders

Decision support

Publication and Content Type

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