Coping with Future Coastal Floods in Denmark—Advancing the Use of Global Frameworks

Abstract

The main aim of Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation is to lower the risk for the population and the society at large. Risk assessments constitute an important part of flood risk management and their quality is crucial to well-informed decision making. This requires an in-depth understanding of the society and its vulnerabilities. Often attention to the flood risk and vulnerability in developed countries is absent due to the assumption that society can cope with disaster; For Denmark, a mixed methods’ research inquiry reveals that this is not always the case. In a critique of current Danish approaches to deal with Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation including coordination and planning, the paper proposes a new pathway for coping with the risks of coastal floods: Global frameworks like the Hyogo and Sendai tailored to suit Danish conditions may serve to mainstream Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation and provide for a holistic, sustainable and more consistent national approach. In addition, such an approach will advance coordination and produce more elaborate guidelines and uniform progress report mechanisms to local and national actors when dealing with flood risks and adaptation.