Project's title: Rising Sea Levels – the planning and design of an uncertain landscape

Project's duration: 2012-2014

Contact person: Tomas Germundsson

Researchers in the project:

• Tomas Germundsson
• Kristina Blennow (SLU)
• Carola Wingren (SLU)

Overview

The project aims at analyzing the current planning of the coastal landscape in the light of the growing awareness of rising sea levels. The case study will be the county of Skåne in southernmost Sweden, where the regional and municipal planning process concerning this issue is fragmented and torn in different directions. One difficulty is, that although there is an awareness of the problem, there are uncertainties concerning, on the one hand side, the magnitude and the time perspective of the changes, and, on the other hand side, the way in which to handle a changing and unpredictable nature in the planning process. The project takes it point of departure in the current available knowledge of the effects of the changing climate and in the interpretations that authorities and involved personnel make of this knowledge. The objective is to contribute to a sustainable planning by demonstrating tools for a deepened holistic view of the issue of rising sea levels. One aspect of this is to find alternative ways of communicating the threat of future sea levels rise. The project is cross disciplinary and involves researchers from human geography, landscape planning, and landscape architecture.