Empowering small rural municipalities through multilevel governance for adaptation in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

The central idea of the Evolving Roadmapping method is the cooperation of different societal actors for the joint development of climate change adaptation strategies, objectives and measures. Measures are not simply proposed by external advisors, but developed jointly by the regional actors. This bottom-up approach directly involves the relevant people in the elaboration of strategies and measures. This approach ensures that generic measures can be adapted precisely to regional needs and governance frameworks. It also increases the ownership and the chances of implementation, as the actors to be involved are at the table from the very beginning. However, this approach requires an adequate and early stakeholder mapping. In the workshops, special emphasis was put on collaboration 'at eye level'. All opinions and ideas were discussed openly, regardless of the societal position of the respective participants. As a large part of the regional processes took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, almost all events were held online. These formats were evaluated mostly positively by the participants.

The processes were organised and moderated by the Social Research Centre at the TU Dortmund University and the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik, difu), accompanied by a variety of support services, provided by project partners such as the (National) German Weather Service for awareness raising, and the Prognos AG for monitoring of the project progress.

The practical implementation of the roadmapping approach involved the participation of stakeholders coming from different sectoral work areas and different policy-making bodies and administrative levels. They included for example:

• district administrations (including e.g. departments for regional development, water management, civil protection or nature conservation),
• towns and municipalities (including e.g. departments for urban and spatial planning, business development or tourism),
• district and municipal politics,
• a variety of non-profit organisations and business associations,
• different kinds of companies,
• research and educational institutions,
• public and private actors from agriculture, forestry and nature conservation.

The implementation of collaborative and multi-disciplinary climate adaptation processes offers a lot of advantages but is also accompanied by a certain amount of time and effort. Throughout the project, several possible drivers and barriers were identified.

Barriers

• The collaborative development of an integrated but also detailed climate adaptation concept was time-consuming and demanded the participants' time. However, as such processes strongly depend on the knowledge and participation of the different actors, it was crucial to keep the motivation of the participants high. This was not always be possible, but could be supported by a personal approach with a focus on highlighting the individual and societal benefits of one’s participation.
• According to the participants, the cooperation through online meetings and shared working platforms had some disadvantages, e.g. the loss of personal exchange. However, according to many participants, these disadvantages were offset by advantages, e.g. time savings due to the elimination of travelling efforts or the possibility to comment on interim results between two workshops via collaborative online platforms. When implementing online formats, the differing skills of the participants were taken into account and access was made as easy as possible.
• Different goals, opinions and ideas can lead to conflicts, also in climate change adaptation. To avoid this, the regional processes started with the definition of shared goals. Different views were always discussed during the process in order to find a common solution.
• Not all relevant participants could always be recruited for the process, which sometimes led to knowledge gaps that prevented more concrete discussions, e.g. about the implementation of measures. This was compensated by a focused involvement of relevant actors parallel to the workshops.
• Limited options of acting at regional/local levels for some participants and topics occurred, such as for agricultural companies, mainly dominated by the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) of the EU. Those actors did not see options to integrate their decisions in a regional or municipal roadmap. Communicating those specific needs to the Federal state, Federal and EU levels would be essential to address regional and local adaptation needs for those sectors.

Success factors

• Pre-existing networks (such as from sustainable development) and adaptation efforts were a great asset. Tying the process to established governance structures and projects not only ensured consistency, but also made it possible to make the best use the existing know-how.
• As collaborative processes strongly depend on the active participation of the different actors, a high level of motivation is of great value. This especially applies to people with relevant tasks, responsibilities or personal networks. These potential ‘multipliers’ of knowledge were actively addressed (e.g. by approaching them personally) and kept in the adaptation process as closely as possible.
• The increasing relevance of the topic of climate change adaptation in politics and society was a major driver. In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in attention to climate protection and adaptation issues. The flood disaster in the western part of Germany in the summer of 2021, for example, gave the topic of heavy rainfall prevention a particular importance in these regional processes. Such events can be used to critically examine existing structures and processes and to raise awareness among different groups (without becoming alarmist).
• The design and implementation of the workshops "at eye level", i.e. enabling all participants to work together on an equal level, led to an increased motivation and to the (at least temporary) suspension of existing conflicts.
• In order to guarantee their independent and continuous use beyond the project, the provision of the climate impact analysis and a practical monitoring scheme were designed for each district as practical and accessible as possible. These services were developed in close cooperation with the practitioners.
• Political support also played an important role in the adaptation processes prompted by the Evolving Regions project. Roadmaps were officially adopted by the district councils, the highest political level each of the North Rhine Westphalian districts. The project has also received attention in the Federal state's politics and backup from the Federal state government through providing the project funding and ensuring the scientific collaboration with the Environment agency (LANUV) and other relevant actors in the Federal state of NRW (for example the public funding federal state bank, NRW.BANK).

Finally, the knowledge gained throughout the project was passed on to other regions in Germany as well as to other regions in Europe and actors, mainly through the dissemination of reports and the organisation of various events and contributions in international conferences. Training courses for consultants and employees of other districts’ administrations were organised to make them aware of the Roadmapping concept of the Evolving Region project and to apply it in their area of responsibility. These courses were run jointly by the Social Reasearch Centre at TU Dortmund University, difu and the Education Centre for the Supply and Waste Management Industry (Bildungszentrum für die Ver- und Entsorgungswirtschaft gGmbH, BEW, a non-profit organisation, acting at federal levels).

Together with stakeholders from the Dutch region of West-Overijssel/Ijssel Vechtdelta and the University of Twente in Enschede, the commonalities and differences of the different approaches were discussed in exchange rounds in order to be able to make suitable policy recommendations.

Costs

As the project focused on the collaborative development rather than the implementation of concrete measures, the financial resources of the project (total budget €2.9 million), which came from the EU LIFE programme and the Federal state of NRW, were used to implement the project components. The districts had to contribute 1000€ each in order to be part of LIFE project.

In addition, in almost all districts, own resources were allocated to establish and maintain the new staff positions of the climate change adaptation ‘promoters’, which were initially financed by the project.

Actors interested in implementing an adaptation process according to the Evolving Roadmapping method should expect costs for the establishment of a coordinating unit, the implementation of an extensive dialogue process, the preparation of a climate impact analysis as well as potentially for further external expertise and services (e.g. for project monitoring). In the project, these costs were largely covered for the participating regions.

Benefits

Districts and municipalities could derive multiple benefits in adopting and implementing the Evolving Roadmapping method.

Through the implementation of integrated, collaborative climate adaptation processes of Evolving Regions project, the seven participating districts were enabled to actively address the consequences of climate change. In addition, regional actors could benefit from relevant support services that were provided by the project. The detailed district-wide climate impact analysis enabled regional actors to understand the concrete impacts of climate change and to identify those areas and sectors that are most affected. The practice-oriented monitoring concept provides an easy-to-use approach to assess the impact of a measure before it is implemented. For this purpose, impact chains in the sense of intervention logics have been developed that illustrate the positive (and negative) effects of a measure. These were linked to indicators that can be used to monitor and evaluate the measures listed in the roadmap.

These services and the established network enabled the regional actors to integrate the topic of climate adaptation into their daily work and to independently continue the initiated efforts. This capacity building is an elementary objective of the Evolving Roadmapping method. In many districts, the network of actors created during the process is likely to be used beyond the project, as the demand for the continuation of the created networks was expressed by the participants in all districts. In some districts, e.g. in Minden-Lübbecke, the project network was transferred to a newly established working group on climate change adaptation, which meets regularly. Due to the positive results and experiences in using a new project, six out of seven project-funded staff position to coordinate climate adaptation (the so-called ‘regional promoter’), were permanently established by the districts after the end of the project.

Furthermore, the development of an integrated planning document agreed upon by regional stakeholders forms the basis for future climate adaptation in the regions.

Overall, the processes were able to directly address some key challenges related to climate change adaptation. Indeed, the climate impact analysis reduced uncertainties about existing and expected climate change impacts, and the dialogue processes enabled relevant actors to cooperate across thematic and administrative boundaries. On this basis, future climate adaptation activities can be coordinated or combined more closely and resources can be used in a more targeted manner.

Finally, the integrative and collaborative approach of Evolving Roadmapping made it possible to work on different topics together and thus to consider possible conflicts but also synergies from the very beginning of the process.

https://www.evolvingregions.com/en/

Evolving roadmapping guide

Evolving Regions Layman Report

The climate-resilient district of Minden- Lübbecke