Climate change has emerged as one of the most critical issues of the 21st century. It stands to impact communities across the globe, forcing individuals and governments alike to adapt to a new environment. While it is critical for governments and organizations to make strides to change business as usual, individuals also have the ability to make an impact. The goal of this thesis is to study the beliefs that shape climate-related attitudes and the factors that drive the adoption of sustainable practices and technologies using a foundation in statistical learning. Previous research has studied the factors that influence both climate-related attitude and adoption, but comparatively little has been done to leverage recent advances in statistical learning and computing ability to advance our understanding of these topics. As increasingly large amounts of relevant data become available, it will be pivotal not only to use these emerging sources to derive novel insights on climate change, but to develop and improve statistical frameworks designed with climate change in mind. This thesis presents two novel applications of statistical learning to climate change, one of which includes a more general framework that can easily be extended beyond the field of climate change. Specifically, the work consists of two studies: (1) a robust integration of social media activity with climate survey data to relate climate-talk to climate-thought and (2) the development and validation of a statistical learning model to predict renewable energy installations using social, environmental, and economic predictors. The analysis presented in this thesis supports decision makers by providing new insights on the factors that drive climate attitude and adoption.

International human rights committees and special rapporteurs on the situation for indigenous peoples have criticised Sweden for the domestic treatment of Sámi people and for not fully complying with indigenous rights on participation and consultation under international law. Participatory rights and consultation duties for indigenous peoples are important as they function as means of ensuring indigenous influence in decision making, giving effect to their substantive rights to land resources and culture. Swedish law acknowledges rights for Sámi people to be consulted in decision making. However, these peoples still do not have effective influence on issues that affect them in their role as indigenous peoples. As the extraction of natural resources and industrial and other development projects continues, the protection of indigenous Sámi rights in Swedish law need to guarantee that Sámi people have enough influence over land issues and in decision-making processes on matters that concern them. With their traditional knowledge, indigenous peoples may have an important role in environmental management and in efforts on climate change adaptation.

The consequences of climate change are already noticeable in small island developing states. Road networks are crucial for a functioning society, and are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather, floods, landslides and other effects of climate change. Road systems in small island developing states are therefore in special need of climate adaptation efforts. Climate adaptation of road systems also has to be cost-efficient since these small island states have limited economical resources. Recent advances in deep reinforcement learning, a subfield of artificial intelligence, has proven that intelligent agents can achieve superhuman level at a number of tasks, setting hopes high for possible future applications of the algorithms. To investigate wether deep reinforcement learning is suitable for climate adaptation of road maintenance systems a simulator has been set up, together with three deep reinforcement learning agents, and two non-intelligent agents for performance comparisons. The results of the project indicate that deep reinforcement learning is suitable for use in intelligent road maintenance systems for climate adaptation in small island developing states.

abstract: Climate change impacts are evident throughout the world, particularly in the low lying coastal areas. The multidimensional nature and cross-scale impacts of climate change require a concerted effort from different organizations operating at multiple levels of governance. The efficiency and effectiveness of the adaptation actions of these organizations rely on the problem framings, network structure, and power dynamics of the organizations and the challenges they encounter. Nevertheless, knowledge on how organizations within multi-level governance arrangements frame vulnerability, how the adaptation governance structure shapes their roles, how power dynamics affect the governance process, and how barriers emerge in adaptation governance as a result of multi-level interactions is limited. In this dissertation research, a multilevel governance perspective has been adopted to address these knowledge gaps through a case study of flood risk management in coastal Bangladesh. Key-informant interviews, systematic literature review, spatial multi-criteria decision analysis, social network analysis (SNA), and content analysis techniques have been used to collect and analyze data. This research finds that the organizations involved in adaptation governance generally have aligned framings of vulnerability, irrespective of the level at which they are operated, thus facilitating adaptation decision-making. However, this alignment raises concerns of a neglect of socio-economic aspects of vulnerability, potentially undermining adaptation initiatives. This study further finds that the adaptation governance process is elite-pluralistic in nature, but has a coexistence of top-down and bottom-up processes in different phases of adaptation actions. The analysis of power dynamics discloses the dominance of a few national level organizations in the adaptation governance process in Bangladesh. Lastly, four mechanisms have been found that can explain how organizational culture, practices, and preferences dictate the emergence of barriers in the adaptation governance process. This dissertation research overall advances our understanding on the significance of multilevel governance approach in climate change adaptation governance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2019

The concept of climate change has been in the debate, not only at the international level, but also locally, for decades. However, activists around the world have come together to raise their voices and address once and for all the environmental crisis that we are facing today. In that sense, the following research analysed the voices of activists, and their network, in South Africa. With the aim to understand the formation of community-based adaptive capacities in relation to climate change, in communities. This Thesis was conducted as a case study in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The study included five semi-structured interviews directed to activist from Bloemfontein, as well as, secondary data conformed by five interviews conducted to members of the eco-building project ‘Qala Pheland Tala. Start Living Green’, and story-telling videos. As well as, the employment of participant observation, as part of the methodology. The study looked at climate change adaptability and resilience in different communities, based on the resilience theory proposed by Carl Folke. And itaimed to understand the influence that the activists’ network is having incommunity-based adaptation strategies to climate change. Further, the results were categorized with the framework that suggests a Resilience Model, as a set of networked adaptive capacities, designed by Norris et al. (2007). The analysis of the results concluded that the link between the activists’network and the communities, has helped to build adaptive capacities and resilient societies. At the same time, it proved that we need new strategies of action towards climate change, that foresee regenerative societies.

<p>On-going and future climate change is universally acknowledged. Climate changeincorporating global mean temperature rise, impacts on global hydrology and ecosystems willaffect human society and global economy. Corporations will encounter a changing world,most likely including negative effects on business and the global markets, influencingdevelopment and economic growth. Some companies will likely face increasing threats, whileothers may be less affected or may even benefit from direct or indirect change.Affected by climate change interruptions to every-day-business may come as a result or evenbe unavoidable in some regions. Business as usual may therefore not be an option. CorporateClimate Change Adaptation offers companies a solution for responding to climate change andthe interconnected uncertainties, adjusting to noticed or expected climate change effects,focusing on avoiding negative consequences and/or possibly taking advantage of newopportunities.With the aim of studying corporate awareness and understanding of climate change as well ason-going Corporate Climate Change Adaptation a case study including interviews with eightSwedish fashion and textile companies was conducted, supplemented by a literature reviewand discussions with line-of-business and monitoring organizations.Presented in this master’s thesis, the study established that Swedish fashion and textilecompanies show awareness and acceptance of the climate change issue, agreeing to thatclimate change will have ecological and social consequences. However, Swedish fashion andtextile companies, portraying a greatly varying focus on climate change issues, seem only toshow limited understanding of climate change effects regarding natural resources, and docommonly not connect climate change to their own status, to their business activities,processes, supply chains or corporate needs. Displaying low proactivity none of theinvestigated eight Swedish fashion and textile companies had started to adapt to on-going orfuture climate change or plan for future adaptation. The Swedish fashion and textilecompanies, it seems, will need an alarum for the process of Corporate Climate ChangeAdaptation to start.</p>

The first objective of this thesis was to predict the future success of selected tree species under low (B1, 550 CO2 ppm) and moderate (A1B, 720 CO2 ppm) climate change scenarios as defined in the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES). This was accomplished through the creation of radial-growth forecasts for eastern hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis (L.) Carr.), sugar maple (Acer saccharum L.), white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench.) Voss), and white pine (Pinus strobus L.) in the Grand River Watershed of Ontario, Canada. The forecasts were founded on historic growth-climate relationships between standardized regional dendrochronologies for each species and past climate data from the Guelph OAC weather station. These species-specific growth-climate relationships were then extended to 2100 using modeled climate data from the Third Generation Coupled Global Climate Model (CGCM3) to project radial-growth under both emissions scenarios. Results indicated that eastern hemlock radial-growth will remain stable throughout the 21st-century, sugar maple and white spruce growth will start to decline, and white pine growth will increase. While the radial-growth forecasts were limited by the length of the past climate data, the accuracy of the modeled climate data, and the number and type of variables used in the forecast model, the results were statically significant and strongly supported in the literature. The second thesis objective was to assess the potential impact of the radial-growth forecasts on environmental planning policy and forest management strategy in the Grand River Watershed. Examples of how the forecasts could influence basic management strategies in the watershed were provided to display the conceptual linkages between the results and policy formulation. Next, the radial-growth forecasts were presented to four forest managers working in the watershed to gage the practical implications, perceptions and limitations of the radial-growth forecasting method. While the managers found the radial-growth forecasts interesting, they also noted that the results were of limited use since they could not account for other factors important to the future success of the study species, such as seedling dispersal and establishment rates, as well as the potential effects of pathogens, insects and invasive species. Therefore, it was recommended that future research should work to extrapolate the results of the radial-growth forecasts to other tree species and types in the region, as well as incorporate more variables into the models, so that more accurate and applicable growth projections could be constructed in the watershed.

The first objective of this thesis was to predict the future success of selected tree species under low (B1, 550 CO2 ppm) and moderate (A1B, 720 CO2 ppm) climate change scenarios as defined in the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES). This was accomplished through the creation of radial-growth forecasts for eastern hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis (L.) Carr.), sugar maple (Acer saccharum L.), white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench.) Voss), and white pine (Pinus strobus L.) in the Grand River Watershed of Ontario, Canada. The forecasts were founded on historic growth-climate relationships between standardized regional dendrochronologies for each species and past climate data from the Guelph OAC weather station. These species-specific growth-climate relationships were then extended to 2100 using modeled climate data from the Third Generation Coupled Global Climate Model (CGCM3) to project radial-growth under both emissions scenarios. Results indicated that eastern hemlock radial-growth will remain stable throughout the 21st-century, sugar maple and white spruce growth will start to decline, and white pine growth will increase. While the radial-growth forecasts were limited by the length of the past climate data, the accuracy of the modeled climate data, and the number and type of variables used in the forecast model, the results were statically significant and strongly supported in the literature. The second thesis objective was to assess the potential impact of the radial-growth forecasts on environmental planning policy and forest management strategy in the Grand River Watershed. Examples of how the forecasts could influence basic management strategies in the watershed were provided to display the conceptual linkages between the results and policy formulation. Next, the radial-growth forecasts were presented to four forest managers working in the watershed to gage the practical implications, perceptions and limitations of the radial-growth forecasting method. While the managers found the radial-growth forecasts interesting, they also noted that the results were of limited use since they could not account for other factors important to the future success of the study species, such as seedling dispersal and establishment rates, as well as the potential effects of pathogens, insects and invasive species. Therefore, it was recommended that future research should work to extrapolate the results of the radial-growth forecasts to other tree species and types in the region, as well as incorporate more variables into the models, so that more accurate and applicable growth projections could be constructed in the watershed.

One common idea within participation theory is the need for new approaches in decision making that emphasize a two-way interaction between decision makers and the public as well as deliberation among participants. Citizens should be given the opportunity to weigh evidence, discuss and debate potential decision options and possibly arrive at mutual agreements by which all parties can abide. The demand for sound scientific information and public participation is particularly great especially in adapting to some of the impacts of climate change such as floods due to sea level rise. The uncertainties and the socially sensitive nature of such risk, makes it important for all relevant stakeholders to be involved. This study draws on two research projects carried out in Sweden and Denmark with the intention of engaging stakeholders in finding suitable ways of adapting to climate change. The two cases that have been selected for this study include the SEAREG (Sea Level Change Affecting the Spatial Development in the Baltic Sea Region) and the BALTCICA (Climate Change: Impacts, Costs and Adaptation in the Baltic Sea Region). Using a comparative case study method, this thesis looks into the design of participatory processes and the conceptions that underlie them, as well as the consequences on the active participation of other stakeholders with a particular focus on the public. Some of the main differences on the extent of public participation between these projects are sorted out and compared using theoretical perspectives from participation theory. Both cases cut across the local and national scales of decision making and use flooding scenarios in communicating with the public. However, the design of these scenarios as well as the participatory models differ.

In light of the most recent devastating natural disaster event of the Philippines brought upon by Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) on November 8, 2013 that displaced and affected millions in its wake, this thesis attempts to look into the country’s status of preparedness and response to climate-related disasters. Amidst the socio-economic challenges facing this impoverished country are the environmental challenges and proneness to natural hazards that problematize adaptation, recovery, and redevelopment efforts for the country. With a focus on the Leyte region of the Philippines as a local case of exploration, the study seeks to explore the role of institutions and actors who are involved, to identify the challenges experienced in the adopting and implementing process, with the hope to illuminate from the data as to why these challenges exist. The research also touches upon a larger discussion beyond what adaptation strategies can contribute, specifically in framing sustainable development for the country. Using a case study research design, qualitative research methods were employed and interviews conducted with various actors to achieve the aims of the study. A theoretical and conceptual framework was used on the paradigms of natural hazards and vulnerability, the three components of adaptation, and the role of actors and institutions. The results showed that institutions play important roles and hold responsibilities in communicating the main objective of adaptation strategies, but is lost among participating actors. In terms of knowledge and involvement with climate-related adaptation, it is an emerging aspect set within the larger disaster risk reduction context. Identified challenges in educating and communicating the strategies often emerge at the government and community-levels, potentially drawing from bureaucratic challenges funneling down to local government units, which are exacerbated by feelings of distrust and strained relations of communities toward the government. Finally, few themes were found from the data in connecting climate change adaptation strategies to a greater role in framing sustainable development in the Philippines. However, alleviation of impoverished conditions and education were two critical aspects for cultivating knowledge needed to promote long-term efforts toward resilience, and thus sustainability of the local people during disaster events.