Master of Science Leikny Bakke will Wednesday April 29th, 2026, at 12:15 hold her Thesis Defense for the PhD degree in Science. The title of the thesis is:
« Navigating Climate Adaptation in Time and Space: The Role of Governance, Place Attachment, and Technology in Strengthening Local Resilience to Climate-Induced Natural Hazards »
The past decade has been the warmest on record, marked by severe extreme weather and climate events occurring worldwide. These events pose significant social, environmental, and economic challenges. Climate change amplifies the risk by increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, underscoring the urgent need for resilience-building efforts to safeguard populations, infrastructure, and critical assets. While global mitigation strategies remain essential, they must be complemented by robust climate adaptation strategies. As the impacts of climate change are most acutely experienced at the local level, local authorities and communities play a pivotal role in adaptation efforts. Small- and medium-sized municipalities face unique challenges, including resource constraints, geographic isolation, and heightened vulnerability to climate risk. However, their role in adaptation remains underexplored, highlighting a critical gap in understanding how local governance can enhance resilience to climate risks.
Adapting to climate change requires comprehensive strategies that address risks across temporal and spatial scales, balancing immediate needs with long-term considerations while integrating scientific knowledge with local experience. This research adopts a case study approach, utilizing qualitative interviews, field observations, and a systematic literature review to investigate how local governance anticipates, copes with, and adapts to climate risks, thereby enhancing resilience to climate-induced hazards.
The findings of this study highlight the pivotal roles of governance frameworks, place-based factors, and technology in shaping local climate adaptation and resilience. Local adaptation efforts often focus on familiar hazards, while frequently neglecting the capacities required to address future, unfamiliar risks. This shortfall is influenced by governance frameworks shaped by national policies and resource constraints. Furthermore, emotional attachments to place and the use of technology can act as both drivers and barriers to local resilience, as they enhance adaptive capacities in some instances while introducing vulnerabilities in others.
This study offers valuable insights into some of the mechanisms that influence local climate adaptation and emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach to managing climate risk. Such an approach must address both the physical and emotional dimensions of resilience, to ensure that adaptation strategies are inclusive, context-sensitive, and grounded in both scientific evidence and local realities.
Supervisory Committee:
1st Opponent: Professor Olivier Rubin, Department of Social Sciences and Business; Globalization and Europeanization; Centre for Societal Security and Resilience (SECURE), Danmark
2nd Opponent: Senior researcher Dr. Halvor Dannevig, Vestalndsforskning, Sogndal, Norge.
Internal member and leader of the committee: Associate professor Clara Good, Department of Technology and Safety, UiT