Adaptation to Climate Change: A Framework for Analysis with Examples from the Netherlands

Climate change will have a considerable effect on the level of services provided by housing and infrastructure. In the coming decades interventions will be necessary to maintain these services at an adequate level. Such interventions can be incremental or radical, depending on the physical and societal context. This paper presents a framework for analysis of adaptation policies. The use of this framework is illustrated for sea level rise and the level of services provided by flood protection works in the Netherlands and for temperature rise in summer and the need for cooling in urban areas. Although the framework has already proved its value for the selected cases, further testing is recommended.