ITHACA · planned relocatIon as adapTation in a cHAnging ClimAte
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2022-05-01 → 2024-12-18
- EU contribution
- €174,167
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
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Results in brief
planned relocatIon as adapTation in a cHAnging ClimAte
As climate change impacts intensify, planned relocation is gaining traction as a preventive measure to reduce people’s exposure to disasters and environmental change by supporting them to move permanently away from high-risk areas. Given the potentially negative impacts it can have on relocated communities and its high financial costs, it is often considered an option of last resort, when protecting socio-ecological systems appears no longer possible, either technically, socially, or economically. Yet, with climate change increasing coastal and river flood risk in Europe, planned relocation might turn into the ‘least worst’ option. Planned relocation has been understudied compared to other forms of climate-related human mobility like migration and displacement. Moreover, it has been mostly implemented in a reactive and a case-by-case way, with no overarching policies guiding these processes. As a result, we still have little understanding on how planned relocations can be used in the context of climate change adaptation and how they should be governed, managed, funded or supported in normative instruments. The ITHACA project aimed at contributing theoretically and empirically to the emerging literature on climate-induced planned relocation by: i) uncovering the distinct institutional and governance challenges in the anticipatory employment of planned relocation in a changing climate; ii) providing evidence of the emerging policy and practice of planned relocation as adaptation in Europe; iii) developing a framework for supporting policy-making in the implementation of anticipatory planned relocation measures; iv) energising academic attention on climate-induced planned relocation, and stimulating discussions on its employment beyond vulnerable developing countries.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
As climate change impacts intensify, the number of people moving both within and across borders is likely to increase. Whilst research has focused on individual- or household-level migration, much less is understood about planned relocation (PR) - a government-led strategy in which a community is resettled to another location within the country to avoid climate risk. PR in Europe remains largely framed as an ad hoc response in post-disaster settings. Yet, as climate change is projected to increase coastal and river flood risk, governments will be required to shift from supporting emergency solutions to managing strategic approaches to protect their citizens. My project aims at uncovering and theorising the distinct institutional and governance challenges in the anticipatory and strategic employment of PR in a changing climate. By focusing on the interface between traditional approaches to PR and transformational adaptation strategies, I will identify how the current PR and climate adaptation policy and governance landscapes should be innovated to integrate PR into long-term resilient development in Europe. I will employ a ‘Comparative Case Study’ approach to study the emerging policy and practice of PR as adaptation in the Po river basin (IT) and identify enablers and constraints for transformational change. I will rely on a three-pronged data collection strategy consisting of historical analysis, content analysis and interviews with stakeholders at the basin, national and international levels. Based on the literature on transformational adaptation and the evidence from the Italian case study, I will develop a conceptual framework for governing climate-induced PR, which will be tested and refined in the shadow case of government-led relocation in the Austrian upper Danube. The project seeks to energise academic attention on PR as a form of human mobility in the context of climate change, and stimulate discussion around its strategic employment in Europe.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- INTERNATIONALES INSTITUT FUER ANGEWANDTE SYSTEMANALYSE · LaxenburgCoordinatorAustria
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union