Planning for Eventual Flooding : How municipalities can adapt to floods with Umeå municipality as case study

Abstract: Flooding is already an issue that occurs from time to time. With climate changes the frequency of floods that occur due to heavy rainfall will most likely increase. Sweden is no exception and cities in Sweden have been victims of heavy rainfall events and floods. This leads to a need of climate change adaptation in municipalities. The municipalities in Sweden have monopoly on planning and are therefore utterly responsible to plan and adapt to climate changes. Planning can both be to prevent flooding from occurring but also to adapt the municipality to floods, in other words, when a flooding occur the consequences and damage will be minimized. The method used in this research was literature review. The research studied municipalities responsibilities connected to the flooding issue but also advice and recommendations from other authorities, as well as what measures municipalities can take to avoid flooding or minimize the consequences. The research also includes a short case study of Umeå municipality to study their work on the issue. The results mainly show that it is important to plan for flooding early in the planning process. However, the continuously work in every stage in the planning process to adapt to flooding or minimize the consequences of them is important. This research showed that it is a lack of adaptation for flooding in Umeå municipality.