Beredt! to Strengthen Norway's Climate Resilience

Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of floods, landslides, and avalanches. This puts increased pressure on the agencies responsible for emergency preparedness in Norway. The Beredt! project will address this challenge by developing solutions that strengthen local authorities in managing climate-induced natural hazards.

“These solutions include improved warning tools, which provide local authorities with more actionable information and improvements in risk-based management. The latter, in particular, will help bridge the gap between national, regional, and local agencies,” explains project leader and NGI researcher Graham Gilbert.

The researchers will also examine cooperation between agencies and informal groups involved in preparedness and response, such as volunteer organizations.

Based in Finnmark, Troms, and Innlandet

Beredt! is based in two regions: Troms and Finnmark and Innlandet.

“These regions were chosen because they experience natural hazards such as floods and avalanches. The municipalities have very different resources available for emergency work, so together they represent a range of challenges that can be encountered in Norway,” says Gilbert.

The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) leads Beredt! together with a broad team of project partners. Recently, representatives from all parties gathered in Oslo to concretize challenges and needs.

Dependent on Interaction

In the event of natural hazards, the County Governor in Troms and Finnmark is the regional coordinator based on the County Emergency Council and the municipalities. The County Emergency Council consists of, among others, critical infrastructure owners, such as the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, power suppliers, police, and health services. The County Governor was represented at the gathering by acting emergency director Kjersti Kristiansen.

“We represent two weather-exposed counties. For example, both Troms and West Finnmark are particularly prone to avalanches. Although we have extensive experience in crisis and emergency management, we need new information guides and tools that prepare us for future climate challenges,” says Kristiansen.

The national warning responsibility for natural hazard-related events such as floods, landslides, and avalanches lies with the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). Trine Hegdahl is a researcher at the Hydrology Department at NVE and leads, among other things, a project on risk-based flood warning.

Hegdahl explains that what she works on in the NVE project is transferable to the issues discussed in the Beredt! project. Among other things is how to ensure that the population understands and acts correctly based on the warnings sent out.

“We depend entirely on interacting across and sharing the experiences we gain. In the project on risk-based flood warning, we are already working on describing local challenges. A work I hope can be continued in the Beredt! project,” says the NVE researcher.

The Domino Effect Leading to Floods and Landslides

From a regional and national level to local conditions. Estin Blessom works with emergency preparedness in Vågå municipality. He explains that it is challenging to handle natural events in the municipality. The municipal center is built on an alluvial fan, and it has been mapped that three different watercourses pose a flood risk to the central area. NVE is working on a plan for comprehensive protection of the center, and one of the protection measures is to create Norway's first flood tunnel to divert water away from the center. This is a large project with a cost estimate of over half a billion kroner.

“Besides ordinary natural hazards such as floods and landslides, climate change brings new risks. For example, we now experience heavy rain in places where it did not occur before. The heavy rain is often the first in a series of dominoes that can lead to, among other things, floods and landslides,” says Blessom.

Blessom hopes to contribute with knowledge and experience exchange from a small municipality's perspective:

“We represent all the country's smaller municipalities. Compared to, for example, Tromsø municipality, which is already professional and has a lot of experience, we have a smaller emergency staff and fewer resources to update plans and routines.”

The emergency director at the County Governor in Troms and Finnmark emphasizes that they are ready to exchange experiences:

“We represent a party with extensive experience in this type of crisis management, and we are happy to share that experience. Which we again hope can contribute to further developing a common understanding of the needs one has,” concludes Kristiansen at the County Governor in Troms and Finnmark.