I am affected - this is for the municipality to solve
An interview study with Swedish villa owners affected by floods from cloud bursts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.60.25400Keywords:
Översvämning, Skyfall, Villaägare, Välbefinnande, Ansvar, AnpassningAbstract
Climate change leads to increased and new risks in societies. Pluvial flooding is one such risk that already generates major damages, which are expected to increase significantly in the future. Not least, many homeowners risk being affected by floods, and have been attributed a central role in Sweden's climate adaptation policy. Despite this, no previous Swedish studies have specifically investigated how homeowners have been affected by floods beyond damage costs, and few studies have investigated how homeowners have managed or view their responsibility to prevent pluvial flood risks. The lack of such knowledge may lead to less informed decisions about climate adaptation. Through interviews with homeowners affected by flooding, this study examines how they; experience flood risks, have been affected materially and health-wise, have managed the situation, and consider responsibility to prevent new damage. The study shows clear effects on the well-being of homeowners, that few have adapted their property and tend to underestimate the flood risk facing their property. Homeowners also tend to displace responsibility for preventive measures to other actors, mainly the municipality.
References
Adger, W. N., J. Barnett, G. Heath & S. Jarillo (2022) Climate change affects multiple dimensions of well-being through impacts, information and policy responses. Nature Human Behaviour, 6:1465–1473. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01467-8
Allaire, M. (2018) Socio-economic impacts of flooding: A review of the empirical literature. Water Security, 3:18–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasec.2018.09.002.
Asplund, T. (2016) Natural versus anthropogenic climate change: Swedish farmers’ joint construction of climate perceptions. Public Understanding of Science, 25 (5):560–575. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662514559655
Beck, U. (1996/1993) Att uppfinna det politiska. Bidrag till en teori om reflexiv modernisering. Göteborg: Daidalos.
Braun V. & V. Clarke (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2):77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Bubeck, P., W. J. W. Botzen, & J. C. J. H. Aerts (2012) A review of risk perceptions and other factors that influence flood mitigation behavior. Risk Analysis, 32 (9):1481–1495. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2011.01783.x.
Dodman, D., B. Hayward, M. Pelling, V. Castan Broto, W. Chow, E. Chu, R. Dawson, L. Khirfan, T. McPhearson, A. Prakash, Y. Zheng & G. Ziervogel (2022) Cities, Settlements and Key Infrastructure, i the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., pp. 907–1040. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844.008.
Environment Agency (2020) Applying behavioural insights to property flood resilience. Research Report FRS17171 commissioned by the Joint Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme.
Glaas, E., A. G. Ballantyne, T.-S. Neset, & B.-O. Linnér (2017) Visualization for supporting individual climate change adaptation planning: Assessment of a web-based tool. Landscape and Urban Planning, 158:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.09.018
Glaas, E., A. Bohman, M. Karlson, C. Navarra, J. Olsson, Y. Hundecha, T. Opach, D. Cederlund, J. Sjulander. T.-S. Neset & B.-O. Linnér (2022) Development and user testing of the ICT-platform Visual Water supporting sustainable municipal stormwater planning. Urban Water Journal, 19 (9):962–974.
Finansinspektionen (2023) Försäkringsföretagen och översvämningarna i Gävleborg. Rapport 12. Stockholm: Finansinspektionen.
Grahn, T. & H. Jaldell (2019) Households (un)willingness to perform private flood risk reduction – Results from a Swedish survey. Safety Science, 116:127–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.03.011
Grahn, T. & L. Nyberg (2017) Assessment of pluvial flood exposure and vulnerability of residential areas. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 21:367–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.01.016.
Hjerpe, M., E. Glaas, R. Hedenqvist, S. Storbjörk & C. Navarra (2020) A systematic approach for assessing climate vulnerabilities and adaptation options in large property portfolios: influences on property owners’ transformative capacity. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Sciences, 588, 032044. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/588/3/032044.
Houston, D., A. Werritty, T. Ball & A. Black (2020) Environmental vulnerability and resilience: Social differentiation in short‐ and long‐term flood impacts. Transactions of the Institute British Geographers, 46:102–119. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12408
IPCC (2022) “Summary for Policymakers”, 2–33, i H.-O. Pörtner et al (red) Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009325844.001.
Jarnkvist, K. (2019) Intersectional perspectives of house owner narratives on climate risks. Journal of Risk Research, 23 (9):1211–1224. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2019.1646314
Johansson, M. (2015) Data sources on small-scale disaster losses and response – A Swedish case study of extreme rainfalls 2000-2012. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 12:93–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2014.12.004
Joseph, R., D. Proverbs & J. Lamond (2015) Homeowners’ perceptions of property-level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures: The case of the summer 2007 flood event in England. International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering, 5 (3):251–265. https://doi.org/10.2495/SAFE-V5-N3-251-265
Juhola, S. (2019) Responsibility for climate change adaptation. WIREs Clim Change, 10:e608. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.608.
Kellens W., T. Terpstra & O. De Mayer (2013) Perception and communication of flood risks: a systematic review of empirical research. Risk Analysis, 33 (1):24–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.
Knös, D., K. Karagiorgos, J. Haas, B. Blumenthal, L. Nyberg & S. Halldin (2022) Cloudburst-disaster modelling. A new open-source catastrophe model. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 67: 102679. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102679.
Luhmann, N. (2005/1968) Förtroende: en mekanism för reduktion av social komplexitet. Göteborg: Daidalos
Mortreux, C., J. Barnett, S. Jarillo & K.H. Greenaway (2023) Reducing personal climate anxiety is key to adaptation. Nature Climate Change, 13:590. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01716-2
Mobini, S., E. Nilsson, A. Persson, P. Becker & R. Larsson (2021) Analysis of pluvial flood damage costs in residential buildings – A case study in Malmö. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 62, 102407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102407.
Nationella rådet för klimatanpassning (2022) Första rapporten från Nationella expertrådet för klimatanpassning.
Nyberg L., H. Hakkarainen, B. Blumenthal & J.-O. Moberg (2019) Konsekvenser av sommarskyfall i Sverige under åren 2009–2018. Centrum för klimat och säkerhet: 2019:2, Karlstads universitet, Karlstad.
Proposition (2017/18:163). Nationell strategi för klimatanpassning.
Sandink, D. (2015) Urban flooding and ground-related homes in Canada: an overview. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 9:208–223. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12168
Snel, K.A.W., P.A. Witte, T. Hartmann, T. & S.C.M. Geertman (2020) The shifting position of homeowners in flood resilience: From recipients to key-stakeholders. WIREs Water, 7: e1451. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1451
SMHI (2019) Climate extremes for Sweden: State of knowledge and implications for adaptation and mitigation. https://doi.org/10.17200/Climate_Extremes_Sweden.
Thieken, A. H., T. Bessel, S. Kienzler, H. Kreibich, M. Müller, S. Pisi & K. Schröter (2016) The flood of June 2013 in Germany: how much do we know about its impacts? Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 16: 1519–1540. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-1519-2016.
Thistlethwaite, J., C. Brown, D. Henstra & D. Scott (2018) How flood experience and risk perception influences protective actions and behaviours among Canadian homeowners. Environmental Management, 61 (2):197–208. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017-0969-2
Walker-Springett, K., C. Butler & W. N. Adger (2017) Wellbeing in the aftermath of floods. Health & Place, 43: 66–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2016.11.005
Wachinger, G., O. Renn, C Begg & C, Kuhlicke (2013) The risk perception paradox – implications for governance and communication of natural hazards. Risk Analysis, 33 (6):1049–1065. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01942.x
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Anna Malmquist, Mattias Hjerpe, Erik Glaas, Tora Lundgren, Per Gyberg, Sofie Storbjörk
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All content in Sociologisk Forskning is published with immediate open access, under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
All content may be read, downloaded, shared and printed for non-commercial purposes, free and without fees. Contents may not be altered. When content is reused, author, source and a link to the copyright licence must be provided. The author retains copyright to their content. No publication fees are charged.
