Overall aim and structure of the workshop

The purpose of the workshop is to provide an opportunity to engage practically and concretely with the key concepts of the course: risk, vulnerability and adaptive capacity. The workshop will focus on climate risks, vulnerability and adaptation in the context of Gothenburg. This year's workshop task will be to evaluate/analyze/assess the extensive development plans & visions for the central parts along the southern and northern shores of Göta river, called 'Älvstaden' (or the Rivier City in English), from a climate vulnerability and adaptation perspective.

Preparations

In order to enable an informed evaluation/analysis/assessment, you need to familiarize with geographical area in question along with the development plan/vision. At https://alvrummet.se/en/Links to an external site. you will some introductory information along with a virtual model. Even better (but not a requirement) is to visit the guided IRL exhibition, which is free of charge and open every day except Sundays.

For more detailed information about the visions/plans, please visit https://goteborg.se/wps/portal/start/goteborg-vaxer/hitta-stadsutvecklingsprojekt/stadsomrade-hisingen/alvstaden The website is unfortunately only in Swedish, but there is a link to a report in English that outlines the 'River City Vision' https://goteborg.se/dx/api/dam/v1/collections/7e8b1b3a-e30e-480b-a156-394933b22134/items/86a89bc3-074c-4839-ab16-83d81c813f85/renditions/51a6e704-0165-4855-93db-44b5ad45eef9?binary=true.

For information about the city's work on climate change risk management and adaptation, there is relevant information available here: https://goteborg.se/wps/portal/start/goteborg-vaxer/sa-arbetar-staden-med-stadsutveckling/miljo-och-klimat-i-stadsutvecklingen/miljo-och-klimat-i-stadsplaneringen/om-miljo-och-klimat-i-stadsplaneringen#:~:text=S%C3%A5%20arbetar%20staden%20med%20klimatanpassning,-Staden%20g%C3%B6r%20flera&text=En%20hydromodell%20f%C3%B6r%20staden%20har,vattendrag%2C%20kraftiga%20regn%20med%20mera. Unfortunately, the information and the interactive tools are only in Swedish, so the task of having a look at this information has to be the responsibility of those of you who understand Swedish.

For more general and updated scenarios on climate risks in the European region, you can of course also consult the latest IPCC report: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/Links to an external site.

The Workshop

At the workshop, we will in groups discuss and decide about how we want to evaluate the River City Plans/Visions. However there are a few steps that we should aim to complete:

Decide on how we define climate vulnerability in the River City area? What are the aspects/criteria that we think are particularly important/relevant for our evaluation? Do we want to delimit our evaluation to climate change risks (outcome vulnerability approach) or do we want to evaluate the plans/vision from a contextual vulnerability perspective? Do we want to apply a particular assessment framework based on the course literature, or do we want to design our own?
Evaluate the plans/vision (or parts of them, either through thematic or geographical delimitation) based on the approach as well as aspects/criteria that we have decided upon.
Based on the evaluation, identify the adaptation needs and strategies that we think are missing in the plans/vision.