Swedish society is affected by extreme weather with effects for individuals, organizations and infrastructure. A changed climate is connected to the frequency and magnitude of such extreme weather events. These events inflict large socioeconomic costs. Future consequences of extreme weather are shaped not only by the climate as such but is closely connected to how we (individuals, public and private organizations and businesses) build our society. The development path chosen can mitigate or cause vulnerabilities that we bring with us into the future . The allocation of responsibility between public authorities, the insurance industry and individual owners of buildings and homes is unclear.
We present research from two research projects funded by the Länsförsäkringar’s Research Foundation, focusing on the following issues:
- Municipal action, inaction and collaboration has both the potential to mitigate risk and reduce vulnerabilities. This means that municipal activities are central for the understanding of climate risks.
- Prediction of flood damage is one of the key questions in flood risk management. Intense rainfall events cause local damage. It is important to analyze rainfall intensity in local flood events together with flood damage data.
- Experiences and achieved knowledge about existing data sources and reflectively is important. Data compilation is related to learning strategies and methods within risk science in general.
- Homeowner’s attitudes and understandings of flood risk preferences impact their risk reduction behavior. The level of trust in public risk reduction also have effects of individual homeowner’s risk reduction perspectives.
- Narratives of house owners exposed to climate related risks in Sweden is can be understood through intersectional risk theory stating that risk is constructed in relation to different forms of power structures.
- Different insurance imageries of climate change risks are created by Swedish insurance companies in interaction with research institutions. Insurance companies’ efforts to embrace climate change can indicate the constellations of science, fear and value, or the political ecology of risk.