Trial lecture and PhD defense MSc Stig Andreas Johannessen

Stig Andreas Johannessen will defend the PhD degree at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management:

«Lessons from Longyearbyen on climate-related risk governance»

The Faculty of Economics and Management has appointed the following committee to evaluate the thesis:

• Associate Professor Lisbet Fjæran, University of Stavanger, Norway
• Professor Henrik Hassel, Lund University, Sweden
• Associate Professor Aud Marit Wahl, NTNU

Associate Professor Aud Marit Wahl at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management has administered the committee’s work.

The candidate’s main supervisor has been Professor Eirik Albrechtsen, NTNU. Co-supervisor has been Professor Bjørn Ivar Kruke, University of Stavanger. Supporting supervisor has been Martin Indreiten, UNIS The University Centre in Svalbard.

The doctoral work has been carried out in collaboration with UNIS The University Centre in Svalbard.

Public summary:

Coping and adapting to the effects of anthropomorphic climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our generation. This is especially pressing in communities where the effects are occurring more rapidly and have more severe consequences that directly affect or will affect critical infrastructure, critical societal functions, and the life and health of community members. This doctoral thesis looks at how these challenges have arisen and been handled within the Arctic community of Longyearbyen, the largest settlement and the administrative headquarters of the Norwegian Government on the archipelago of Svalbard at 78° North. The thesis looks specifically at how snow and slush-flow avalanches as climate-related risks were dealt with by multiple stakeholders at multiple levels and in multiple situations of risk governance through a series of four articles and a common synthesis. The first article sets the stage by looking at the lay of land in literature on risk governance of climate-related risks. The second delves into what local knowledge might be and the role it plays in short-term handling of snow avalanche risks through forecasting and observation in Longyearbyen. The third article looks at how different stakeholders need to communicate to create common understanding of these risks that reflect both the socio-material reality of the affected and the physical reality of the experts on the phenomena they face by comparing evacuation settings in decisions in Longyearbyen, Honningsvåg, Rauma, and Uummannaq. Whilst, the fourth article looks at how different conceptions of risk were combined in the planning of permanent measures against slushflow avalanches in Longyearbyen, highlighting the distance between the physical phenomena and their cardinal expressions as higher aggregate forms of risk. Together these articles and the synthesis highlight the importance that local knowledge and knowledge of the local physical social situation plays in coping with and adapting to the uncertainties and ambiguities that arise in socio-enviro-technical systems facing climate change and its effects.