Under Pressure : Stormwater, Cloudburst, Governance and Climate Adaptation in Sweden

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how governance, responsibility and mandate related to climate adaptation for stormwater and cloudburst management are interpreted across Swedish multi-level governance arrangements. Against a background of increasing climate-related rainfall risks and increasing demands related to climate adaptation, the study analyses how actors across municipal, regional and national governance levels understand responsibility, coordination and governance conditions within Swedish climate adaptation governance. The study applies a qualitative research design based on semi-structured interviews with actors operating across multiple governance levels and organisational contexts in Sweden. Drawing on multi-level governance and institutional theory, the analysis examines how actors interpret governance structures, responsibility, coordination and institutional conditions related to climate adaptation for stormwater and cloudburst management. Municipal actors occupy practically central coordinating positions despite lacking equivalent formal authority across all governance domains. The study further shows that adaptation governance relies heavily on institutional interpretation and procedural coordination within complex multi-level governance arrangements. Rather than functioning through a fully coherent hierarchical structure, climate adaptation governance emerges as a coordination-dependent and institutionally fragmented governance environment sustained through recurring interpretation, procedural coordination, and organisational adaptation across multi-level governance arrangements.