IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/nathaz/v58y2011i1p85-101.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate change and the resilient society: utopia or realistic option for German regions?

Author

Listed:
  • Birte Frommer

Abstract

For the last five years, climate change has been increasingly perceived as a challenge for regional development. Compared to other nations, Germany is relatively ‘safe’, but the German regions are prone to different impacts of climate change; some of them might be positive but most will be negative in the long run. Strategic concepts are therefore needed to reduce the negative impacts and use the potential positive effects. Due to enforced research funding, several German regions are currently developing adaptation strategies within transdisciplinary research projects. Based on a comparative case study analysis of three of these projects, this paper looks for the benefits of resilience thinking in the context of climate change adaptation. The analysis shows that the case study regions try to increase their resilience to climate change by strengthening the properties of (1) resistance, (2) recovery and (3) creativity. But the discussion also reveals that only parts, certain sectors or subjects, of the region can increase their distinct resilience. Regional stakeholder networks as established within the case study regions can make a significant contribution to linking different sectors and levels of action. Therefore, this approach seems to be applicable for integrating the need for adaptation within the whole region. It is believed that the regionalized communication of potential climate change impacts raises awareness for climate change adaptation, helps to develop appropriate adaptation measures and encourages action. Hence, different approaches can indeed lead to more resilient structures. But the resilient society at regional level remains utopia. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Suggested Citation

  • Birte Frommer, 2011. "Climate change and the resilient society: utopia or realistic option for German regions?," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 58(1), pages 85-101, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:58:y:2011:i:1:p:85-101
    DOI: 10.1007/s11069-010-9644-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11069-010-9644-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11069-010-9644-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. W.Neil Adger, 2001. "Scales of governance and environmental justice for adaptation and mitigation of climate change," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 921-931.
    2. Fikret Berkes, 2007. "Understanding uncertainty and reducing vulnerability: lessons from resilience thinking," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 41(2), pages 283-295, May.
    3. Joel B. Smith & Robert Mendelsohn (ed.), 2006. "The Impact of Climate Change on Regional Systems," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4129.
    4. Matthias Ruth (ed.), 2006. "Smart Growth and Climate Change," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3938.
    5. W Neil Adger & Jon Barnett, 2009. "Four Reasons for Concern about Adaptation to Climate Change," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(12), pages 2800-2805, December.
    6. Matthias Ruth & Kieran Donaghy & Paul Kirshen (ed.), 2006. "Regional Climate Change and Variability," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3989.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xin Miao & David Banister & Yanhong Tang, 2013. "Embedding resilience in emergency resource management to cope with natural hazards," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 69(3), pages 1389-1404, December.
    2. Kovács, Olivér, 2024. "A reziliencia metamorfózisa [The metamorphosis of resilience]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(4), pages 408-443.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Birte Frommer, 2013. "Climate change and the resilient society: utopia or realistic option for German regions?," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 67(1), pages 99-115, May.
    2. Amitrajeet A. Batabyal & Henk Folmer, 2020. "Spatial economic aspects of climate change," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 209-218, July.
    3. Philip McCann, 2017. "Urban futures, population ageing and demographic decline," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 543-557.
    4. Frank Biermann & Michele Betsill & Joyeeta Gupta & Norichika Kanie & Louis Lebel & Diana Liverman & Heike Schroeder & Bernd Siebenhüner & Ruben Zondervan, 2010. "Earth system governance: a research framework," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 277-298, December.
    5. Grüneis, Heidelinde & Penker, Marianne & Höferl, Karl-Michael & Schermer, Markus & Scherhaufer, Patrick, 2018. "Why do we not pick the low-hanging fruit? Governing adaptation to climate change and resilience in Tyrolean mountain agriculture," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 386-396.
    6. Matthias Ruth & Clark Bernier & Nigel Jollands & Nancy Golubiewski, 2007. "Adaptation of urban water supply infrastructure to impacts from climate and socioeconomic changes: The case of Hamilton, New Zealand," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 21(6), pages 1031-1045, June.
    7. Yongdeng Lei & Jing’ai Wang & Yaojie Yue & Hongjian Zhou & Weixia Yin, 2014. "Rethinking the relationships of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation from a disaster risk perspective," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 70(1), pages 609-627, January.
    8. Ana Raquel Nunes, 2021. "Exploring the interactions between vulnerability, resilience and adaptation to extreme temperatures," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 109(3), pages 2261-2293, December.
    9. Busby, Joshua & Smith, Todd G. & Krishnan, Nisha & Wight, Charles & Vallejo-Gutierrez, Santiago, 2018. "In harm's way: Climate security vulnerability in Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 88-118.
    10. J. Park & T. P. Seager & P. S. C. Rao & M. Convertino & I. Linkov, 2013. "Integrating Risk and Resilience Approaches to Catastrophe Management in Engineering Systems," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(3), pages 356-367, March.
    11. Ming-Kuang Chung & Dau-Jye Lu & Bor-Wen Tsai & Kuei-Tien Chou, 2019. "Assessing Effectiveness of PPGIS on Protected Areas by Governance Quality: A Case Study of Community-Based Monitoring in Wu-Wei-Kang Wildlife Refuge, Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-20, August.
    12. Linwood Pendleton & Philip King & Craig Mohn & D. Webster & Ryan Vaughn & Peter Adams, 2011. "Estimating the potential economic impacts of climate change on Southern California beaches," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 109(1), pages 277-298, December.
    13. Md. Humayain Kabir & Mohammed Abdul Baten, 2024. "Sustainability of Climate Change Adaptation Practices in South-Western Coastal Area of Bangladesh," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(5), pages 1-1, July.
    14. Florence Jacquet & A Aboul-Naga & Bernard Hubert, 2020. "The contribution of ARIMNet to address livestock systems resilience in the Mediterranean region," Post-Print hal-03625860, HAL.
    15. Liang Zhao & Gaofeng Xu & Yan Cui & Feng Kong & Huina Gao & Xia Zhou, 2023. "Post-Disaster Restoration and Reconstruction Assessment of the Jiuzhaigou Lake Landscape and a Resilience Development Pathway," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, February.
    16. Dustin Allred & Arnab Chakraborty, 2015. "Do Local Development Outcomes Follow Voluntary Regional Plans? Evidence From Sacramento Region's Blueprint Plan," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 81(2), pages 104-120, April.
    17. Ríos-Núñez, Sandra M. & Coq-Huelva, Daniel & García-Trujillo, Roberto, 2013. "The Spanish livestock model: A coevolutionary analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 342-350.
    18. Anna Davies & Niamh Kirwan, 2010. "Rescaling climate justice: sub-national issues and innovations for low carbon futures," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp340, IIIS.
    19. Brune, Sara & Vilá, Olivia & Knollenberg, Whitney, 2023. "Family farms' resilience under the COVID-19 crisis: Challenges and opportunities with agritourism," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    20. Alton C. Byers & Mohan Bahadur Chand & Jonathan Lala & Milan Shrestha & Elizabeth A. Byers & Teiji Watanabe, 2020. "Reconstructing the History of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) in the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, East Nepal: An Interdisciplinary Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-27, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:58:y:2011:i:1:p:85-101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.