Assessments about the nature, rate, impacts and responses to climate change deal with change in coupled environmental-human systems. In making future projections of climate variability and change, mitigation and adaptation, assessments are therefore faced with making assumptions about the future social and economic changes, often over the long-term. In stand-alone assessments, the analyst will be free to develop appropriate, tailored scenarios. In complex cross-sectoral research programmes it is analytically useful to develop a set of common approaches and assumptions, which is one of the major objectives of this theme.

A tool for integrated analysis of emission reductions over
regions, sectors, sources and greenhouse gases – IC02
In this project mitigation options within regions and sectors have been analyzed. There are a multitude of results, e.g. improved process models, spatial allocation of land use (change), land use scenarios rela-ted to future consumption patterns, production systems and trade re-gimes and databases with mitigation options. The results can be used by policy makers to determine the role of land use in mitigation strategies.
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Designing national land use adaptation and mitigation strategies
under changing climate conditions (VU) - LANDS - IC03
The LANDS project has a cross-sectoral approach on how land use change and climate change can be translated into national adaptation strategies and regional measures. Using land use models potential
spatial opportunities and conflicts are identified in different scenarios.
The project integrates the results of all the projects of the Adaptation theme in a "land use scanner". Read paper
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Communicating climate change: tools for framing climate risks
and benefits – IC10
Within IC10 a toolbox has been developed which explain how the analysis of frames can help with starting communication on climate change or choosing a policy strategy. Peoples frames determine how they experience situations and activities. The Tool Catalogue describes per frame how different strategies concerning knowledge and policy issues can be distinguished. It also supplies decision support methods.
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Socio-economic scenarios for climate change assessments –  IC11
Socio-economic scenarios play an important role within climate research. Society will change, and these scenarios describe possible futures. This project clarifies in which ways socio-economic scenarios can be used within climate research. It can e.g. be used for coupling socio-economic scenarios with climate scenarios and tailoring them for research questions. The website www.climatescenarios.nl offers more results of the project. Read more or download the synthesis.
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The Dutch institutional framework and governance of adaptation
strategies - IC12
To help the implementation of adaptation to climate change the IC12 project has developed an ‘adaptive capacity wheel’. With this wheel the adaptive capacity of an institution (for example policy or legislation) can be determined, with which can be decided where processes have room for improvement. This tool is applied as guidance, qualitative evaluation and quantitative assessment on three case studies. Poster
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Objectives

• To develop a consistent framework for socio-economic scenario’s on land use change at the national and regional provincial level (in international context) that can serve as a planning context for adaptation and mitigation strategies at sub regional and local scale.  
• To evaluate, develop and extend land use models and databases in order to project the spatial implications of adaptation and mitigation strategies under different climate projections (Project CS7) and socio-economic scenarios.
• To develop a set of policy indicators and visualisation tools that supports analysis of potential co-benefits and conflicts of land use change in different sectors (such as nature, water, agriculture) as a result of future climate policy (adaptation and mitigation).
• To investigate how institutional (legal, policy and organizational) frameworks at different administrative levels promote or hamper the realization of effective, efficient and legitimate climate policy.
• To develop a method for consistently identifying costs and benefits of adaptation and mitigation within spatial planning, taking into account ancillary benefits, non-monetary values and joint outputs.

• integrated assessment
• cost benefit analysis
• governance studies
• participatory methods.

Projects

• IC02 - Integral analysis of mitigation options within sectors and regions
• IC03 - National adaptation strategies
• IC05 - Cost-benefit analysis of adaptation and mitigation strategies
• IC08 - PRObing a method to Facilitate the Interactive Linking of Expert knowledge to Stakeholder assessment (PROFILES)
• IC10 - Communicating climate change: methods for revealing risks and opportunities
• IC11 - Socio-economic scenario's for climate change assessments
• IC12 - Institutions for adaptation: Is the Dutch insitutional structure capable of adapting to climate change?