Climate Adaptation Management in Germany: On the Climate Adaptation Practices in Urban Lower Saxony

German cities and municipalities are increasingly confronted with the consequences of climate change and are already taking measures to adapt to the risks posed by climate impacts such as heat, heavy rain, flooding, drought, and storms. The research project examines the practice of climate adaptation in Germany, focusing on the role that climate adaptation managers (CAM) play in relation to other actors in practice: What agency do they have to implement sustainable and socially just adaptation measures and make cities and municipalities more resilient?

The appointment of CAM in municipalities represents a significant step forward in institutional climate adaptation in Germany. As managers, their main task is to coordinate a municipality's adaptation efforts across various departments, to develop municipal climate adaptation plans, and to coordinate their implementation. In addition, they are responsible for transferring knowledge about climate risks and adaptation to the various municipal departments as well as to civic society. Climate adaptation is often described as a cross-cutting task that encompasses all areas of urban development.

The research project is based on the assumption that CAMs exercise varying degrees of agency in their everyday professional lives, which is influenced by local and supraregional structures, the actors involved and the processes at play. The aim of the research project is to understand how they navigate these varying contextual conditions and dynamics in order to effectively shape climate adaptation at the local level. Starting in urban Lower Saxony, practices, and the associated networks and policy mobilities of climate adaptation in Germany are being examined for this purpose. Using qualitative ethnographic research methods, CAM and other climate adaptation professionals are accompanied to various places.

CAM often operate at the interface between different levels of climate adaptation governance and are therefore the ideal starting point for researching the interactions between the various human and non-human actors (e.g. laws, policies) of climate adaptation. The analysis of relational processes between the various actors helps to understand how climate adaptation develops locally, as well as which understanding of climate adaptation dominates in practice. It also sheds light on the impact that municipal climate adaptation management can have and the factors that facilitate or hinder local adaptation to climate risks.

Project period: 1 January 2026 – 31 October 2029