Dissertation - Detailansicht
Dissertation von Katina Kuhn
Cultures of Perception on Adaptation to Climate Change – the Significance of Time-Space-Perceptions for Adaptation Strategy Development for Coastal Protection in the Southern North Sea (Working title)
Kurzbeschreibung
In the year 2025 worldwide coastal population will comprise about 2.75 billion people. The world’s coastal regions are and increasingly will be severely exposed to the effects of global climate change. Against this backdrop the question of societal adaptation to climate change seems pivotal.
The dissertation examines how the challenge of dealing with incremental, long-term time horizons that characterize the effects of global climate change is perceived within the network of actors of regional coastal protection. Differences and congruencies in dealing with “time” within the web of relations between science, the general public and stakeholders of coastal protection are depicted. A perspective is taken that is based on social science perception research, value-tree analysis and empirical research on time perceptions. Furthermore the interplay of temporal perceptions of adaptation measures with spatial – in particular regional – effects and perceptions of global climate change is explored. The analysis sets out how both dimensions interact in people’s perception and shape evaluation criteria that in turn influence the acceptance of adaptation strategies.
In the cumulative dissertation, a differentiated and integrated understanding of the patterns of perception and evaluation on adaptation strategies in coastal protection is developed. In order to achieve this, quantitative and qualitative empirical research is conducted at the interface of the trans- and interdisciplinary collaboration carried out in the context of the project A-KÜST.
Research aims of the Dissertation: April 2009 – December 2013
First Advisor: Prof. Dr. Harald Heinrichs