How mainstream is mainstreaming?: The integration of climate adaptation into urban policy

Abstract

Cities need to adapt to climate change, as associated risks such as heat stress and flooding can disturb and damage urban systems and services. Since the future costs of this damage are expected to be higher than the estimated investments required, cities would be wise to start to organize climate adaptation today. This dissertation addresses the governance of climate adaptation. Municipalities play an important role in the governance of climate adaptation: they can organize responses to local impacts, set up networks and manage the allocation of resources. Although more and more municipalities are aware of the possible impacts of climate change, and recognize their role in organizing climate adaptation, the planning and implementation of responses have been slow. Various barriers hamper climate adaptation, for example, uncertainty about the risks and impacts, lack of political commitment and limited financial resources. Consequently, municipalities are searching for different approaches to address climate adaptation in urban policy. In academic literature, two distinct governance approaches to climate adaptation have been discussed. Some researchers have argued that a new dedicated policy domain for climate adaptation needs to be developed. However, others have indicated that in practice actors are searching for solutions that not only serve climate adaptation, but integrate the adaptation objective in existing policy domains (e.g., urban planning, water management, public health). The integration of adaptation in other policy domains, also called ’mainstreaming climate adaptation’, can stimulate effective policymaking through establishing synergies in objectives, increasing efficient use of resources and ensuring long-term sustainable investments. While this is considered a promising governance approach, an unequivocal understanding of the mainstreaming approach is lacking. The aim of this dissertation is to develop an in-depth understanding of mainstreaming in relation to climate adaptation and urban policy. This is undertaken in four stages: (I) by characterizing mainstreaming, in particular, by opposing it to a dedicated approach to climate adaptation, (II) by exploring possible barriers to and opportunities for the approach, (III) by identifying strategies to promote mainstreaming, and (IV) by establishing criteria to evaluate mainstreaming in practice. To address these research aims, the research combines multiple perspectives from various research disciplines, amongst others governance, planning, political and organizational science, to establish conceptual and analytical frameworks and apply these to empirical cases. The empirical cases are used to both exemplify and refine the conceptual understanding of mainstreaming. This dissertation consists of five articles.