Integrating Climate Change Adaptation in Local Policies: Lessons from the Netherlands

The complex political and social context where local and regional policies are being developed plays a decisive role in the development of climate change adaptation. This article examines the phenomenon of climate change adaptation in Dutch communities by focussing on the policy process of local adaptation to determine the main factors that drive policy actors in these municipalities to implement climate change strategies. We present our findings from a regional study in the Netherlands. Data is gathered through in-depth case studies and a questionnaire administered to civil servants in 25 municipalities. The perceptions of climate change risks significantly differ between the concerned sectors: water managers are less concerned, while spatial planners are most; environmental officers are only limitedly involved in climate change adaptation. As perceptions as well as solutions significantly differ among the policy domains, we call for a closer integrating ( ̳mainstreaming‘) of policies related to the environment to achieve a more sustainable adaptation process. Finally, this paper meets the academic challenge to study the bottom-up, empirical ̳reality‘ of the adaptation process to advancing our understanding of the adaptation policy process. Its improved conception of local climate change adaptation processes in the Netherlands could be applied to other First World contexts.