Policies

Relevant city context

This case study may be interesting to cities who are integrating national or international requirements to the local context. In this case, the topic was reduction of car emission and promotion of the use of the public transportation system, bikes and walking.

Goal

This case study supports the following policies:

L1A1 Align, integrate and connect the city resilience plan with national resilience management guidelines with the goal to increase abilities to better respond and adapt to economic, social, and physical challenges

L1M3 Adopt Climate Change prevention actions with the goal of reducing the threats og climate change and effectively make the city more sustainable

This particular project sought to reduce car emissions and promote the use of public transportation system, bikes and walking. The government in Norway made a cross-party agreement to fulfill international requirements on environment issues. As part of this agreement, the national transportation plan states that the nine largest cities in Norway will be part of a City Environmental Agreement (CEA) with a goal to increase safety and reduce congestion and emissions from passenger car traffic. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to implement measures that allow more people to leave the car and instead use the public system, bikes or walks. The focus of the project is congestion, which includes decreasing the number of cars on the roads, especially during peak hours. In Kristiansand surveys and observational studies have been used to investigate the transportation needs of people.

Cooperation among stakeholders

In Kristiansand a key to the success of this project was the ability of the regions municipalities to cooperate and that there was a strong regional political will to make it happen. The project was spearheaded by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Mayor of Kristiansand, and the Vest-Agder county council. A challenge in the project was to get different branches of government and different parts of the region to cooperate. This is a common challenge in environmental policy at all levels of government. A key facilitator is to allow the process to take time and involve staff that can form an agreement to meet the requirements of the vast number of stakeholders.

Outcomes 

The project generated a plan for changes in infrastructure, requiring cooperation between different municipalities in the region. The new plan led to a decrease in traffic congestion and the target goals for emissions were reached in a short time. The city has now been granted 30 million euro for infrastructure improvement. In addition, the municipality of Kristiansand believe they have built the competence on an administrative level to prepare similar applications on shorter notice.

Links

https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/a-national-transport-plan-for-better-and-safer-daily-travel/id2548623/

Relevant city context

It is useful for cities who are working on developing a common understanding of dependencies and collaborative needs between city stakeholders. The workshop methodology can be used at a “Starting” stage, as well as more advanced stages.

Goal

This case study supports the following policies:

P2S3: Develop a common understanding of the resilience approach among stakeholders with the goal of

(L3M1) Promoting a culture of resilience

L1A1: Align, integrate and connect the city resilience plan with national resilience management guidelines with the goal of increasing abilities to better respond and adapt to economic, social, and physical challenges

P1A1: Assess and prioritise risk scenarios and their implications through consideration of risk systemicity (eg using Risk Systemicity Questionnaire) with the goal of developing risk mitigation strategies for highest priority risks at city/regional level

Until 2011 emergency preparedness was based on the principles of liability, conformity, decentralization, which means that the participating entities are expected to be responsible for and perform tasks during a crisis that fall under their responsibility during normal operation. In 2011, following the terror attack on 22 July, a decision was made by the minister of justice and public security to extend these principles to include cooperation.

The implementation of the policy was done through a series of workshops and activities to engage stakeholders in discussions of cooperation and identification of interdependencies of risks. A combination of different methods and tools where used during the workshops, such as, table top exercises, the Risk Systemicity Questionnaire (RSQ) and simulated stress-tests. For example, a stress test of a regional power supply company was performed using the “Long-Term Power Rationing”- scenario to identify direct and cascading effects of long term power outages in the municipality. Key stakeholders and representatives from different services in the municipality took part the evaluation of the effects. In addition, a large-scale exercise was carried out in 2017 with the power outage scenario. The exercise included the power supply company and the crisis management board in the municipality.

Outcomes  

The workshops were believed to be very successful in building an understanding for interdependencies between services, potential vulnerabilities and possibilities to cooperate. These initial workshops have further set an example for future workshops in other infrastructure areas, such as water providers and telecom infrastructure. An additional result based on the outcome of the stress-test and exercise was an action plan to increase redundancy in areas found to be more vulnerable, including for example back-up generators at homes for the elderly. A challenge identified is that not all companies are willing to disclose their vulnerabilities, and forums for discussion and long-term cooperation are essential to build the necessary confidence.

Resources

In connection to implementation of the new principle the municipalities crisis management expanded, including a full-time position in the team. The newly appointed crisis manager coordinated the workshops and activities and costs were split between stakeholders depending on the activity. The stress-test exercise was financed by the power supply company and the cost for the large-scale exercise was divided between the involved stakeholders.

Links

Emergency preparedness principles (In Norwegian)

Information on stakeholder role and responsibility 

Description of stakeholder annual meetings 

Risk Systemcity Questionnaire