EXPLORING THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF MUNICIPAL RISK AND VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENTS IN SWEDEN-CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Many countries have established disaster risk management (DRM) systems to reduce disaster risks and improve societal safety. Risk assessment in the DRM system is not only an important tool to identify potential risks, but also promotes DRM through conversations among stakeholders from different functional sectors and administrative levels. The municipal risk assessment, produced at the lowest administrative level of the system, is often expected to fulfill two purposes. One is to meet municipalities’ own, local DRM needs, while the other is to contribute to regional and national-level work. This article takes the multi-level, multi-stakeholder, bottom-up Swedish DRM system as a representative example to investigate the perceived challenges and opportunities emerging from the preparation of these dual-purpose assessments. Empirical data were collected through 42 semi-structured interviews and related documentation from 18 local municipalities and six regional authorities in Sweden. The findings, representing perceived challenges and opportunities were categorized into six themes: the focus of municipal RVA work; the template and evaluation criteria for municipal RVAs; municipal RVA work as a continuous process; the dissemination of municipal RVAs; feedback from the county administrative board; and the benefits and drawbacks of municipal RVA work. (Less)