3CIRAN: Climate Change of Critical Infrastructure in Remote Areas in the Nordic countries (NOS-HS workshops)

The primary objective of this workshop series is to establish a new research group for examining the increased vulnerability due to Climate Change of Critical Infrastructure in Remote Areas in the Nordic countries (3CIRAN). To attain this objective, 3CIRAN will develop a series of stakeholder and academic workshops for building a framework combining social science and humanities theories, methods, and analyses.

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3CIRAN draws from established knowledge of three research fields: the role of critical infrastructures in the functioning of society, infrastructural vulnerabilities, and the long-term impacts of climate change. Whilst these fields have generated an important new understanding of their domains, 3CIRAN argues that they have overlooked the manifold interconnections and mutually constitutive relationships between them. This creates a need for research to integrate insights from these three areas. The workshops develop a focus on climate adaptation in remote areas in the Nordic countries as a pivotal case to examine these interrelationships and pursue a state-of-the-art understanding of them.​

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The project is led by Antti Silvast (Technical University of Denmark) and Rico Kongsager (University College Copenhagen), and is in collaboration with the Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen and Mikko J. Virtanen (both Tampere University) and Minna Lundgren (Mid Sweden University). The project started on 1/1-2021 and the first workshop took place in May 2022 in Åre/Östersund, Sweden. The second workshop was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in October 2022, and the third and last workshop will be in Finland in June 2023.

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Funded by a grant from the "Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS)" currently hosted by NordForsk.

 

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Nordic Network on Climate Related Displacement and Mobility (NOS-HS workshops)

The Nordic Network on Climate-Related Displacement and Mobility brings together scholars, practitioners, and stakeholders, to contribute to policy and regulatory questions associated with climate change-related displacement as it impacts this region. By drawing on the Nordic experience, and putting this into a context of global trends, the Network highlights a specifically Nordic angle that will contribute to questions of immediate relevance to the governance of a global challenge.

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Research into climate change and migration from a legal and policy perspective is in its fledgling stages in the Nordic region with only a few researchers focused specifically on the issue, and more working at its edges, but without a central hub to coordinate those efforts. This is the gap that the Nordic Network on Climate-Related Displacement and Mobility fills.

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Led by Assistant Professor Miriam Cullen (University of Copenhagen)

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Funded by a grant from the "Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS)​" currently hosted by the Academy of Finland.

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Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research

Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research (COPE) is a platform for interdisciplinary research, teaching and networking on disasters and climate change issues.

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Along with members from different faculties at the University of Copenhagen, COPE’s main partners include University College Copenhagen and Roskilde University.

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COPE's aim is to facilitate multidisciplinary disaster research by:

1. supporting and promoting collaborative studies,

2. sharing results from this research and

3. circulating the results of these projects, thus advancing knowledge in the field.

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With this expansive ideology at its base, the center sets out to attract both scholars and funding from national and international institutions. The research center is ultimately working towards a research-based education through the Master of Disaster Management (MDMa) program at the University of Copenhagen. The researchers involved in founding the COPE represent all six academic faculties, thus facilitating a center governed by many different voices, ideas, and perceptions of what disaster research encompasses.

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EMERGE: Multi-hazards and emergent risks in Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions

The EMERGE project, formed by a new multi-hazard focused international partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, and the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, in collaboration with the British Geological Society, Newcastle University, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, brings together experts to explore weather-driven hazards - primarily extreme rainfall, landslides and floods - and their emergent and compounding risks across Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions.

 

EMERGE has a focus on the UK, Norway, and Iceland, aimed at bringing together researchers that work in similar climatic zones to foster collaboration and create novel, cutting-edge science that is beneficial to both the UK and its near neighbors. EMERGE's activities will address critical research questions relating to (1) the emergence and compounding risks of weather-driven natural hazards in remote regions; (2) the observation, prediction, and monitoring of these hazards across the UK, Iceland, and Norway; and (3) regional research priorities and resilience-building strategies.

 

These will be explored through a series of expert workshops and 'living labs' in Glasgow, Oslo, and Reykjavik, supported by wider dissemination activities, that will create a forum that fosters open scientific collaboration, knowledge brokering, and information sharing, and identifies needs and opportunities. Our remote communities and environments must undergo significant change if they are to successfully transition to being climate resilient. The grand challenge presented by climate change, combined with the disproportionate impacts of natural hazards in remote regions, demands a new international approach to society's interaction with the environment in order to build a more equitable and sustainable future. The new partnerships formed by EMERGE will develop world-leading research to produce critical new scientific knowledge and support the development of solutions that build climate resilience in some of our most vulnerable regions.

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Building resilient communities in the High North

Meetings with partners in the Faroe Islands and Greenland identified a clear need to map local communities’ ability in the high north to respond to catastrophic events. With the help of funding from NordPlus (Nordic Council), we mapped existing capabilities and aimed to utilize adult training workshops to understand community resilience better and improve community response to critical events in the high north. The workshops used existing local competencies and resources to map how the communities utilize existing resources and local knowledge to strengthen resilience.

 

Over two years, the project conducted exercises in Greenland and the Faroe Islands with representatives with in-depth local knowledge of the high-north, emergency response management, policing, and organizing. The starting workshop in Copenhagen established a baseline for community resilience by providing input from researchers and practitioners. Using our combined knowledge, we plan four exercises to map community resilience exercises in the high north. Policymakers, community heads, and emergency preparedness professionals use the output to expand their knowledge of the practical implementation of resilience research and increase their ability to respond effectively when their communities face disastrous events.

 

The experiences gained through the project have developed much attention in many places as far away as the Caucasus and other places in the north, such as Norway and Svalbard.  

 

Contact for more information Jacob Taarup (JATA@kp.dk)