CSPR Briefing. In Hac Vita: Increasing Nordic Homeowners Adaptative Capacity to Climate Change

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1 CSPR Briefing In Hac Vita: Increasing Nordic Homeowners Adaptative Capacity to Climate Change research and development of a web-based tool VisAdapt TM CSPR Briefing No 10, 2013 Tina Simone Neset, Björn-Ola Linnér, Erik Glaas, Carlo Navarra, Jimmy Johansson, Tomaz Opach, Jan Rød, Anne Gammelgaard Ballantyne and Michael Goodsite

2 Contact CSPR Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research The Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research is a joint venture between Linköping University and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. We conduct interdisciplinary research on the consequences of climate change as well as measures to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases and ways to adapt society to a changing climate. Producing effective climate strategies presupposes that the climate issue is studied in its context with other measures for sustainable development, therefore the Centre also undertakes research on related environmental and resource issues. Our research spans international and global as well as Swedish conditions. For more information on our research and other publications please visit Linköping University Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research The Tema Institute SE Norrköping Sweden Telephone + 46 (0) Telefax +46 (0) cspr@tema.liu.se

3 In Hac Vita: Increasing Nordic Homeowners Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change - research and development of a web-based tool VisAdapt TM The NordForsk funded research project In Hac Vita project is a collaboration between the Nordic insurance companies If, Gjensidige, Trygg-Hansa/ Codan and Tryg Insurance, and the Top-level Research Initiative the Nordic Centre of Excellence NORD-STAR. The project concerns climate change adaptation and insurance in the Nordic countries and focuses on the design and implementation of the web-based visualisation tool VisAdapt TM, allowing homeowners to assess potential climate related risk factors that may have an impact on their living conditions, and to get an overview of existing guidelines of how to adapt to climate change and extreme weather effects. Impacts from climate change and extreme weather events Over the last couple of years, the Nordic countries have experienced severe damages and rising costs due weather related events, such as flooding and storms. As a result, insurance companies have had an increase in the number of compensation payments made to homeowners. Over the coming years, payments are expected to rise even more throughout the Nordic region (Forsikring & pension 2013). The Nordic countries are facing several expected climate change and weather related challenges, including increased annual precipitation, more common and intensified cloudbursts, Increased variation in water run-off and levels, increased annual temperatures, higher humidity, increased number of days with extreme high temperatures (heat waves), sea level rise, coastal erosion, increased number of landslide events and potentially more days with strong wind (Goodsite et al. 2013, IPCC 2012). The VisAdapt TM tool The web-based interactive tool VisAdapt TM applies elements of geographic and information visualization to increase individuals capacity to adapt to climate variability and change by facilitating exploration and learning of expected climate and weather related effects in the Nordic Region. Users can select specific locations or regions to discern information about potential climate impacts and adaptation measures from national government authorities, municipalities and insurance companies in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, as well as comparing multiple scenarios and historical changes. This enables assessment of local vulnerability and

4 reflection of possible adaptation options. VisAdapt TM is predominantly developed for private homeowners, but has potential to function as a decision support and information tool for e.g. insurance professionals, land-use planners or property managers. Figure 1: Screenshot of the VisAdapt TM interface (November 2013) VisAdapt TM is a web-based tool with multiple linked views. The interface is structured in three step exploration process and designed to guide non-experts users in locating their house and exploring data and guidelines for this location: Step 1: the user inserts the address of the location to investigate as well as specific features of his/her own house, such as roof type or topography of the garden Step 2: the user can explore different climate scenarios to investigate projected changes in temperature, precipitation and other climate parameters Step 3: information is provided on possible adaptation measures that are of particular relevance to the climate parameters which is expected for the selected region and to the specific house type Throughout the research project, the tool development is continuingly assisted by experimental evaluations, both individually and in groups with house owners and in groups with experts. The VisAdapt TM tool is planned to be launched in the autumn of For more information please visit Project timeline: March August 2014

5 Research Team Prof. Björn-Ola Linnér. Dr. Tina-Simone Neset, Assistant Professor. Dr. Erik Glaas. Post-doctoral Research Fellow MSc Carlo Navarra, Research Engineer Dr. Jimmy Johansson, Assistant Professor C-Research, Department of Science and Technology, Linköping Dr. Tomasz Opach, Post-doctoral Research Fellow Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway and Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Water and Environmental Studies, Linköping Dr. Jan Ketil Röd, Associate Professor Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway MA Anne Gammelgaard Ballantyne, PhD candidate Aarhus University Herning (AU Herning), Denmark and Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Water and Environmental Studies, Linköping Prof. Michael Goodsite, Head of Department, AU Herning and Center Director, Nordic Center of Excellence for Strategic Adaptation Research (NCoE NORD-STAR), Aarhus University, Denmark

6 References Forsikring & pension, Finans Norge, Federation of Finnish Financial Services and Svensk Försäkring Weather related damage in the Nordic countries from an insurance perspective. [Weather related damage in the Nordic countries (final).pdf] acc: Goodsite, M.E., M. Davis, R.J.T. Klein, B. Davídsdóttir, R. Atlason, S. Juhola, M. Landauer, B.O. Linnér, T. Neset, E. Glaas, G. Eskeland (2013). White Paper: Climate Change Adaptation in the Nordic Countries. Nordic Climate, Mitigation, Adaptation and Economic Policies Network (N-CMAEP), Norden Top-level Research Initiative, Oslo, Norway IPCC, 2012: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY, USA, 582 pp. Please cite this text as: Neset, T-S., Linnér, B-O., Glaas, E., Navarra, C., Johansson, J., Opach, T., Rød, J., Gammelgaard Ballantyne, A. and Goodsite, M. (2013). In Hac Vita Project Briefing No 1, Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden. Available at and