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To design effective adaptation measures to a heating climate, decision-makers need a state-of-the-art, regional and sector-specific knowledge about future climate impacts. Tailoring this information to the needs of policymakers requires collaboration between scientists and stakeholders. A lot of literature on design principles and comprehension of scientific visualisations exists. However, the links between objective comprehension, perceived usefulness for communication and aesthetics of climate change impact maps have rarely been analysed in empirical studies. In a co-design effort together with stakeholders in adaptation planning and climate change communication experts, regional climate change impact maps were developed and published as open-access dataset. The comprehension, aesthetics and perceived usefulness of different map design features were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated in a two-step survey. Designs with less information density were understood best, found most aesthetical and useful for communication practice. Uncertainties were deemed necessary by participants, but not understood well when combined with other variables on the same map sheet. Map understanding varied significantly with the cognitive difficulty of a task. This difference was robust over user groups. Co-designing maps at the science-policy interface have the potential to create more useful and comprehensible communication materials and thus supports adaptation planning with the best available information on future climate impacts.

Local governments are highly relevant actors when it comes to mitigating climate change impacts such as flooding. Not only do they need to implement regulatory and infrastructural measures, but they also need to promote complementing self-protective measures at the household level. The individual motivation of municipal actors to pursue climate adaptation can be important for the implementation of such measures, obviously alongside several other factors, such as financial and administrative issues. A questionnaire survey with a non-random sample of 77 local government actors from 15 of the 16 German federal states was conducted, focusing on potential key factors concerning the motivation to implement adaptation measures against hazardous impacts of heavy rain. Additionally, the perceived effectiveness and realizability of selected municipal structural measures and of activation measures promoting self-protective behavior were collected. It can be shown that the perceived realizability of adaptation measures as well as knowledge of risk and adaptation may be key factors in the motivation to implement both activation and structural measures, while motivation and implementation are only partially related. The results imply a need for the evaluation of activation measures and a need for further research on the motivation of municipal actors to implement activation measures.

High expectations—both in science and in practice—are associated with participatory approaches especially at local levels for realising adaptation and building resilience to climate change and natural hazards. Nevertheless, there is a lack of evaluation studies that empirically confirm the many expected positive effects of participatory approaches. To clarify and specify these effects we develop a new resilience concept differentiating three dimensions: resilience knowledge (including risk and action knowledge), resilience action (including action and its psychological determinants such as efficacy and responsibility beliefs) and resilience network (including networks within and between actor groups). We apply this concept to the evaluation of eight government-led public participation events on adaptation to climate change, particularly to increasing heavy rain events, in four cities in Germany. Results of the participant questionnaires indicate that the events were effective in increasing participants’ knowledge (particularly knowledge integration), action (rather supporting than triggering action) and networks. But increases were only moderate and could not be achieved for all participants. Hence, effects of participatory approaches on building resilience should not be overestimated. The detected increases particularly in collective efficacy beliefs regarding collective action of governmental actors together with citizens support ideas of co-management of urban resilience. Increases in perceptions of governmental and private responsibilities for taking action have consequences for the discussion on responsibilisation in natural hazards and climate change adaptation research. Results indicate that an open communication about governmental and private responsibilities can help avoiding one-sided responsibilisations and demotivating effects of governmental responsibilisation on private action.

We report the results on factors for self-protective behavior against weather extremes such as extreme heat events, drought, and heavy precipitation. Our research draws on the Model of Private Proactive Adaptation to Climate Change (MPPACC). We developed a survey instrument incorporating the main aspects of the MPPACC and other factors from related research work that are assumed to explain why some people show self-protective behavior while others do not. The interview survey was conducted with a non-random sample of 210 respondents from three Philippine cities, namely Baguio, Dagupan, and Tuguegarao. The results reveal the importance of adaptation appraisal, including the perceived feasibility of self-protective measures, the perceived adaptation knowledge, and, with limitations, the perception of actions taken by neighbors or friends. We also show that perceptions of past weather trends are closely linked to risk perception but are only partly corroborated by weather station data. Implications for fostering self-protective behavior are making use of time windows right after an extreme weather event and focusing on enhancing adaptation appraisal.

Recent policy changes highlight the need for citizens to take adaptive actions to reduce flood‐related impacts. Here, we argue that these changes represent a wider behavioral turn in flood risk management (FRM). The behavioral turn is based on three fundamental assumptions: first, that the motivations of citizens to take adaptive actions can be well understood so that these motivations can be targeted in the practice of FRM; second, that private adaptive measures and actions are effective in reducing flood risk; and third, that individuals have the capacities to implement such measures. We assess the extent to which the assumptions can be supported by empirical evidence. We do this by engaging with three intellectual catchments. We turn to research by psychologists and other behavioral scientists which focus on the sociopsychological factors which influence individual motivations (Assumption 1). We engage with economists, engineers, and quantitative risk analysts who explore the extent to which individuals can reduce flood related impacts by quantifying the effectiveness and efficiency of household‐level adaptive measures (Assumption 2). We converse with human geographers and sociologists who explore the types of capacities households require to adapt to and cope with threatening events (Assumption 3). We believe that an investigation of the behavioral turn is important because if the outlined assumptions do not hold, there is a risk of creating and strengthening inequalities in FRM. Therefore, we outline the current intellectual and empirical knowledge as well as future research needs. Generally, we argue that more collaboration across intellectual catchments is needed, that future research should be more theoretically grounded and become methodologically more rigorous and at the same time focus more explicitly on the normative underpinnings of the behavioral turn. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water Governance Science of Water > Water Extremes, The work carried out by Sebastian Seebauer was supported by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund and was carried out within the Austrian Climate Research Program, Austrian Climate and Energy Fund

While most climate change vulnerability assessments focus on regional or city-levels, this paper studies villages and their different forms of vulnerability vis

Over the last years, communicating climate change adaptation has gained increasing attention in science and practise. This paper provides an overview of existing adaptation communication formats in ten OECD countries and offers recommendations for their successful design. Via online search we identified 278 communication formats on climate change adaptation. Based on a literature review and a consultation process with climate and communication experts from science and practise, a list of 16 success factors for adaptation communication was compiled with regard to communication content, target group adequacy, adaptation motivation and communication evaluation. Using the success factors as evaluation criteria, we analysed the 278 formats. The analysis yields 13 good practise examples that can inspire future adaptation communication. Following our discussion which of the success factors have not yet been sufficiently addressed we propose going beyond the content level and address emotions, norms and values as well as making use of trusted messengers.

Several case studies show that social factors like institutions, perceptions and social capital strongly affect social capacities to adapt to climate change. Together with economic and technological development they are important for building social capacities. However, there are almost no methodologies for the systematic assessment of social factors. After reviewing existing methodologies we identify the Adaptive Capacity Wheel (ACW) by Gupta et al. (2010), developed for assessing the adaptive capacity of institutions, as the most comprehensive and operationalised framework to assess social factors. The ACW differentiates 22 criteria to assess 6 dimensions: variety, learning capacity, room for autonomous change, leadership, availability of resources, fair governance. To include important psychological factors we extended the ACW by two dimensions: "adaptation motivation" refers to actors' motivation to realise, support and/or promote adaptation to climate; "adaptation belief" refers to actors' perceptions of realisability and effectiveness of adaptation measures. We applied the extended ACW to assess adaptive capacities of four sectors – water management, flood/coastal protection, civil protection and regional planning – in northwestern Germany. The assessments of adaptation motivation and belief provided a clear added value. The results also revealed some methodological problems in applying the ACW (e.g. overlap of dimensions), for which we propose methodological solutions.

People are unequally affected by extreme weather events in terms of mortality, morbidity and financial losses; this is the case not only for developing, but also for industrialized countries. Previous research has established indicators for identifying who is particularly vulnerable and why, focusing on socio-demographic factors such as income, age, gender, health and minority status. However, these factors can only partly explain the large disparities in the extent to which people are affected by natural hazards. Moreover, these factors are usually not alterable in the short to medium term, which limits their usefulness for strategies of reducing social vulnerability and building social capacity. Based on a literature review and an expert survey, we propose an approach for refining assessments of social vulnerability and building social capacity by integrating psychological and governance factors.

Die Kommunikation des Klimawandels und der sich aus ihm ergebenden Erfordernisse fur Klimaschutz- und Klimaanpassungshandeln kann dazu beitragen, das Problembewusstsein zu steigern, Akteure in Politik, Wirtschaft und Bevolkerung zum Handeln zu befahigen und zu motivieren sowie die Akzeptanz fur Klimaschutzmasnahmen zu erhohen. Die mangelnde Wahrnehm- und Erfahrbarkeit des Klimawandels, die Notwendigkeit des Vertrauens in Experten- und Mediendarstellungen, geringe personliche Risikowahrnehmungen und Tendenzen, sich durch den globalen und komplexen Klimawandel uberfordert zu fuhlen, erschweren jedoch eine handlungsmotivierende Kommunikation. Zudem bestehen in den Wahrnehmungen des Klimawandels und den Bereitschaften zu Klimaschutzhandeln grose Unterschiede zwischen Bevolkerungsgruppen und -milieus als auch zwischen Wirtschaftssektoren, sodass zielgruppenspezifische Kommunikationsmasnahmen erforderlich sind. Wie in mehreren Studien gezeigt, ist das Wissen uber den Klimawandel nur einer von vielen Einflussfaktoren – und meist nur ein geringer – fur das Klimaschutzhandeln und die Akzeptanz von Klimaschutzmasnahmen. Nach Darstellung dieser Herausforderungen der Klima(schutz)kommunikation zeigt der vorliegende Beitrag Wege auf, wie wichtige kommunikativ beeinflussbare Einflussfaktoren adressiert werden konnen. So sollten moglichst lokale bzw. regionale Informationen zu den Folgen des Klimawandels kommuniziert werden, um personliche Risikowahrnehmungen zu steigern. Um das Bewusstsein fur eigene Handlungsmoglichkeiten und -notwendigkeiten zu erhohen und Abwehrreaktionen zu mindern, ist die Kommunikation uber soziale Modelle, Vorbilder bzw. Good-Practice-Beispiele, in denen Klimaschutz erfolgreich umgesetzt wurde, ein sehr wirksames Mittel. Um Emotionen gezielt zu adressieren, konnen attraktive, mit angenehmen Emotionen verbundene Visionen einer CO2-neutralen Zukunft gemeinsam entwickelt und verfolgt werden. Um auf die in einer bestimmten Gruppe bzw. bei einer bestimmten Person jeweils relevanten Barrieren des Klimaschutz- und Anpassungshandelns einzugehen, erscheinen dialogische Kommunikationsformen (z. B. Workshops und Beratungsgesprache) vielversprechender als einseitige Kommunikationsformate (z. B. Flyer oder Broschuren). Jedoch gibt es kaum empirische Studien, die die Wirksamkeit der Klima(schutz)kommunikation untersuchen. Daher wird im abschliesenden Teil des Beitrags auf die Notwendigkeit einer verbesserten Evaluation von Formaten zur Klimakommunikation eingegangen.

Der anthropogene Klimawandel ist ein gesellschaftliches Problem, das allein mit natur- und ingenieurwissenschaftlichen Modellen und Methoden nur unzureichend analysierbar ist. Um die Folgen des Klimawandels zu verstehen sowie wirksame und sozial gerechte Klimaschutz- und Anpassungsmaßnahmen entwickeln zu können, ist die sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung unab dingbar. Dieses Positionspapier 2 will dazu beitragen, die Potenziale sozialwissenschaftlicher Forschung bei der Erforschung von Klimafolgen, Vulnerabilität und Anpassung zu identifizieren und auszuschöpfen.

The article introduces the notion of adaptiveness and discusses the role of social learning in it. Adaptiveness refers to the capacity of a social actor or social–ecological system to adapt in response to, or in anticipation of, changes in the environment. We explore arguments both from a theoretical perspective and through illustrations from case studies of water management in the Alps of Europe and Mekong in southeast Asia. We propose and illustrate that social learning processes are important for building adaptiveness in several ways and at different scales. Social learning can help cope with informational uncertainty; reduce normative uncertainty; build consensus on criteria for monitoring and evaluation; empower stakeholders to take adaptive actions; reduce conflicts and identify synergies between adaptations; and improve fairness of decisions and actions. Findings in the case studies provide some support for these generalizations but often with caveats related to diversity of stakeholder interests, levels of shared understanding versus contested knowledge and scale of coordination. For this reason, we suggest that future work pays greater attention to issues of agency, knowledge and scale: What strategies have individuals and organizations pursued in successful examples of social learning? How are the boundaries and interactions between science, policy and practice managed? How does social learning occur across spatial and temporal scales?

Self-protective behavior by residents of flood-prone urban areas can reduce monetary flood damage by 80%, and reduce the need for public risk management. But, research on the determinants of private households’ prevention of damage by natural hazards is rare, especially in Germany. To answer the question of why some people take precautionary action while others do not, a socio-psychological model based on Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) is developed, explaining private precautionary damage prevention by residents’ perceptions of previous flood experience, risk of future floods, reliability of public flood protection, the efficacy and costs of self-protective behavior, their perceived ability to perform these actions, and non-protective responses like wishful thinking. The validity of the proposed model is explored by means of representative quantitative telephone surveys and regression analyses, and compared with a socio-economic model (including residents’ age, gender, income, school degree and being owner or tenant). Participants were 157 residents of flood-prone homes in Cologne, Germany, a city that has traditionally been subject to minor and major flood events. Results of the study show the explanatory power of the socio-psychological model, with important implications for public risk communication efforts. To motivate residents in flood-prone areas to take their share in damage prevention, it is essential to communicate not only the risk of flooding and its potential consequences, but also the possibility, effectiveness and cost of private precautionary measures.

Adaptation has emerged as an important area of research and assessment among climate change scientists. Most scholarly work has identified resource constraints as being the most significant determinants of adaptation. However, empirical research on adaptation has so far mostly not addressed the importance of measurable and alterable psychological factors in determining adaptation. Drawing from the literature in psychology and behavioural economics, we develop a socio-cognitive Model of Private Proactive Adaptation to Climate Change (MPPACC). MPPACC separates out the psychological steps to taking action in response to perception, and allows one to see where the most important bottlenecks occur—including risk perception and perceived adaptive capacity, a factor largely neglected in previous climate change research. We then examine two case studies—one from urban Germany and one from rural Zimbabwe—to explore the validity of MPPACC to explaining adaptation. In the German study, we find that MPPACC provides better statistical power than traditional socio-economic models. In the Zimbabwean case study, we find a qualitative match between MPPACC and adaptive behaviour. Finally, we discuss the important implications of our findings both on vulnerability and adaptation assessments, and on efforts to promote adaptation through outside intervention.

This paper develops governance recommendations for urban adaptation strategies based on case studies in urban regions of five European countries, a European expert survey on guiding principles for adaptation to climate change (including more than 250 experts from all EU countries) and literature on adaptation to climate change. The case studies show that adaptation to climate change is influenced by social factors such as education, skills, values, perceptions, interests, customs, stakeholder participation and the cooperative structures between different sectors, communities, regions and policy levels. Social factors should therefore be explicitly addressed in adaptation strategies; if not taken into account, they can become significant barriers to adaptation. To adequately address social factors, every adaptation strategy should include learning, cooperation and communication strategies, which are best formulated at the local level.