The resilience approach to climate adaptation applied for flood risk; Dissertation, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft.

The uncertainties associated with making investment decisions for flood risk management can be significant and arise from, amongst other factors, a lack of knowledge about external drivers, like climate change. These uncertainties make it necessary to succeed the (quasi-)stationarity approach for the development of investment strategies. Otherwise, such strategies can be maladaptive, resulting in e.g. unnecessary costs of potentially irreversible measures. This dissertation presents a potential way forward for adaptation to climate change, termed the resilience approach. The resilience approach takes a dynamic perspective on adaptive processes and the effects of these processes at/across different spatio-temporal scales. The methods required for applying the resilience approach should give insight into and promote the ability of a system to deal with future change. This comprises the ability not only to respond to change as a threat, but also to take advantage of opportunities that arise from future change. Case study experience is provided with four methods: Adaptive Policy Making, Real-In-Options, Adaptation Tipping Points and - Adaptation Mainstreaming Opportunities. This dissertation discusses the concept, procedure and benefits/limitations of each method, examining its usefulness for informing investment decisions for flood risk management. It gives specific recommendations on which method to use under what circumstances