Disaster risk management, climate change adaptation and the role of spatial and urban planning: evidence from European case studies

Abstract This paper advances knowledge and understanding of the relationships between risk management, climate change adaptation and spatial planning as good territorial governance practices. The aim is to present evidence on how risks and their management are progressively being integrated into national planning systems in order to reduce territorial vulnerability and costs related to natural events in the European context. This paper is based on the ESPON-TITAN project which focuses mainly on flood events that occurred in Rotterdam, Prague, the Po river basin, Pori, Andalucia, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Dresden and the Alpine region. The paper reviews the literature and planning instruments applied in the selected case studies, as well as interviews with key stakeholders and decision makers. The results confirm the hypothesis that traditional disaster management is evolving towards Disaster Risk Management, clearly recognizing that Climate Change modifies and increases threats. Data on the consequences of natural disasters support the desirability of a proactive rather than a reactive approach, highlighting the crucial role of planning. The resulting governance is more "functional" than "territorial", leaving room for further advances and innovations such as territorial and multi-risk perspective, partnerships and civil society participation, and soft versus traditional hard or engineering solutions.