Connecting Climate Change Adaptation with Other Policy Issues: A Comparative Case Study of two Municipalities in the Netherlands

The urgency to implement climate change adaptation (CCA) is increasing for governments. Since CCA implementation often takes place at the local level, the role of municipalities is particularly relevant in this regard. While the barriers that hinder CCA implementation have been studied extensively, little is known about the strategies that local actors employ to overcome these barriers. To address this knowledge gap, we aim to answer the following question: “How do contextual factors influence the strategies that municipalities choose and implement to connect CCA with other policy issues?” Our theoretical framework synthesizes the emerging insights about mainstreaming CCA and the Multiple Streams Framework. This improves our understanding of connecting strategies, as we distinguish between dedicated, connected and integrated approaches. Furthermore, we shift perspective by regarding barriers as contextual factors that influence municipalities’ CCA strategies. In this study we focus on factors that are related to problem emergence and problem definition. To answer our research question, we analyse and compare two medium-sized Dutch municipalities: Enschede and Zwolle. Preliminary results indicate that municipalities’ approaches to connecting CCA differ depending on the local context. In the two municipalities, problem emergence differed drastically. This influenced problem definition in both municipalities and informed their decisions on CCA strategies and the degree of connection they aimed for. However, further research is necessary to investigate other contextual factors and to determine insights into the transferability of CCA strategies across different local contexts.