Årsetdalen, Møre og Romsdal. Photo by Gunnar Wangen.
The UiT Climate Change Adaptation Research Group (Est. 2021) is an interdisciplinary Research Group that explores the topic of climate change adaptation from both a natural and social science perspective.
The research group consists of researchers interested in the theme of climate change adaptation, participates in relevant research projects, and contributes to research-based education in the field at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Current projects include research within topics such as flash flooding, natural hazards, place attachment, ocean temperature changes and impacts on aquaculture.
The Research Group is hosted by the Department of Technology and Safety, Faculty of Science and Technology, and led by Associate Professor Dina Abdel-Fattah.
News
22.03.2024
Policy brief: Adapting to heavy rainfall and flood risk, lessons learned from Møre and Romsdal
18.02.2024
CCA RG members’ present at CIIMAR’s Oceanus seminar series: An Arctic perspective on the changing Atlantic Ocean
12.02.2024
CCA RG members’ Erasmus+ research mobility exchange to Porto
Policy brief: Adapting to heavy rainfall and flood risk, lessons learned from Møre and Romsdal
The brief summarizes key lessons learned from our three-year research project in Møre and Romsdal County.
We studied the impacts from flash floods on local communities, their risk perception, and adaptive capacities with a place attachment lens. If you are interested in our research paper on this topic check out: research paper
Our work was part of a wider Nordforsk project called CliCNord check out the website for more policy briefs on for example, Flooding in Denmark or storms managment in the Faroe Islands.
CCA RG members’ present at CIIMAR’s Oceanus seminar series: An Arctic perspective on the changing Atlantic Ocean
On 14 February 2024, Dina Abdel-Fattah and Stian K. Kleiven from the CCA RG held a seminar at CIIMAR – the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research in Porto, Portugal, as part of CIIMAR’s weekly Oceanus seminar series.
Abdel-Fattah presented an outlook about the future of Northern Norway under climate change. She talked about how climate change is affecting ocean ecosystems in the Arctic. Northern Norway’s ocean ecosystems are one of the most vulnerable to climate change, due to the extensive aquaculture industry in the region that accounts for about 40% of the overall Norwegian fishing industry. She also presented some highlights from the CCA RG’s SSH Centre-funded EU Climate Policy book chapter. Notably, one of the main policy recommendations the book chapter proposes is how Maritime Spatial Planning can be used as a tool to bring scientific knowledge, stakeholders’ interests, as well as other critical socioeconomic information together to solve maritime-related planning and challenges.
Kleiven presented thereafter his PhD research. His PhD work is on the impact of biotic stressors, such as salmon lice, on farmed Atlantic salmon during different climate scenarios in Northern Norway. For example, potential sea surface temperature increases in Northern Norway can result in aquaculture industries experiencing an increased growth rate of Atlantic salmon, however, there can also be increased pressure on Atlantic salmon production from other organisms that flourish in warmer conditions, such as parasites, harmful algae blooms, jellyfish blooms, bacteria, and viruses.
CCA RG members’ Erasmus+ research mobility exchange to Porto
This spring, two researchers from the CCA RG, Dina Abdel-Fattah and Stian K. Kleiven, are on a Erasmus+ mobility research exchange to CIIMAR – the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research in Porto, Portugal.
Irene Isabel da Cruz Martins together with Fabiola Negreiros de Amorim from CIIMAR are the two main points of contact for Abdel-Fattah and Kleiven during their research stay in Porto. Both Abdel-Fattah and Kleiven will collaborate with Martins, Negreiros, and other researchers from CIIMAR on several different projects during their time in Porto.
One of the projects is the SSH Centre-funded book chapter project, which provides policy recommendations at the EU level for EU member states’ marine spatial planning initiatives. The work for the book chapter was started in 2023. The author team consists of: Dina Abdel-Fattah and Stian K. Kleiven from UiT, Misse Wester from Lund University, and Irene Martins and Sandra S. Ramos from CIIMAR.
Another project that the CCA RG researchers will collaborate on during their research stay in Porto is a coastal wetlands socioecological model development project for various coastal communities in Portugal.
Stay tuned for more news coming from Porto! Updates will be forthcoming about other projects, seminars, and courses from the mobility stay.
Abdel-Fattah, D., Trainor, S., Kettle, N. & Mahoney, A. (2022). (Research): Sea Ice Hazard Data Needs for Search and Rescue in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. In: Berkman, P.A., Vylegzhanin, A.N., Young, O.R., Balton, D.A., Øvretveit, O.R. (eds) Building Common Interests in the Arctic Ocean with Global Inclusion. Informed Decisionmaking for Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89312-5_23