Integrating climate change considerations into spatial planning in the Baltic Sea Region:Environmental and interconnected impacts

Climate Change: A Growing and Interconnected Threat to the Baltic Sea Region

The Baltic Sea Region faces intensifying climate pressures that affect a wide range of interconnected natural and human systems. Whilst the vulnerability of coastal municipalities to extreme weather events is a primary concern, the impacts extend far beyond urban centres, necessitating a holistic perspective.

The Baltic Sea Region’s sensitive coastal ecosystems are already experiencing biodiversity loss and the provision of essential ecosystem services. Concurrently, climate change is altering freshwater and marine biogeochemistry, disrupting vital nutrient and carbon fluxes and potentially exacerbating existing environmental challenges such as eutrophication and ocean acidification.

Furthermore, sea-level rise, intensified storm surges, and diminishing sea ice are accelerating coastal erosion and reshaping coastlines, posing threats to both natural habitats and built infrastructure. Vital blue economy sectors, including fisheries and aquaculture, shipping, port activities, and coastal tourism, are also significantly affected by shifting climate patterns, with direct consequences for regional economies and food security. For instance, changes in storm intensity can disrupt shipping routes and port operations, whilst rising sea levels and altered weather patterns can damage coastal tourism infrastructure and diminish the attractiveness of destinations. These far-reaching and interconnected impacts underscore the urgent need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to spatial planning—one that addresses the full spectrum of climate risks across both urban and non-urban systems.

Key Climate Change Impacts Relevant to Spatial Planning in Urban Areas

Urban areas across the BSR are already experiencing the consequences of climate change, and these impacts are projected to intensify, posing specific challenges for spatial planning:

• Sea-Level Rise: Coastal cities, particularly in the South Baltic, face increased risks of seawater inflow into drainage systems, saline intrusion into freshwater sources, and damage to critical infrastructure.
• Shoreline change: With Sea-Level Rise, the shoreline position and shape are certain to change over time. This influences all activities related to the beach, as well as the planning of future infrastructure.
• Extreme Precipitation: Both North and South Baltic urban centres are vulnerable to surface flooding, sewage overflows, drinking water contamination, and disruptions to transport infrastructure.
• Heat Waves: Rising temperatures will disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, especially in the South Baltic, increasing health risks and energy demands.
• Storm Surges: Industrial sites and transport infrastructure located near the coast are at heightened risk, necessitating proactive protective measures and resilient design.
• Temperature Rise: Higher temperatures can degrade drinking water quality, increase heat stress among urban populations, and alter air pollutant concen-trations, negatively affecting urban liveability.
• Changing Precipitation Patterns: Shifts in precipitation regimes influence water availability and posing significant challenges for urban water management systems.

Moving Towards Resilience: Challenges and Recommendations for Spatial Planning

To build a more resilient future for the Baltic Sea Region, municipalities must embrace a paradigm shift in spatial planning by proactively integrating climate change consid-erations:

• Enhance Capacity Building: Equip municipalities with the necessary knowledge, tools, and resources to comprehensively assess and effectively address the diverse risks posed by climate change.
• Promote Integrated Planning: Climate considerations must be embedded into all aspects of spatial planning processes, explicitly recognising the critical in-terdependencies between urban systems and the surrounding natural environments.
• Foster Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange: Strengthening transnational cooperation is essential to facilitate the sharing of expertise, best practices, and the coordination of adaptation strategies across the borders of the Baltic Sea Region.
• Utilise Existing Knowledge and Tools: Leveraging proven approaches such as ecosystem-based adaptation and integrated coastal zone management can effectively support local action and enhance the resilience of the region.

Policy Area Spatial Planning and climate resilience

Spatial planning is commonly understood as a public process for analysing and planning the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities to achieve economic, environmental, and social objectives. The Policy Area aims to promote functional integra-tion across multiple scales (macro-regional, national, regional, local levels) and different sectors of public policy to increase territorial and policy cohesion in the region, ensuring its sustainable development and climate resilience.

Policy Area Spatial Planning supports climate resilience through various Policy Area relevant projects that have been brought together at Interreg Baltic Sea Region Project Platforms Baltic PlaNet and SEABAS which have been recognised as operations of strategic im-portance. Project platforms aim at strengthening coherent spatial planning in the region applying ecosystem-based approach. They intend to increase regional climate change resilience addressing the issue in strategic environmental assessment proce-dure and enhancing municipal authorities’ capacities to integrate extreme weather events considerations into their spatial planning, while preserving natural and urban environments. The projects leverage tools and resources from more than a dozen of projects, including Sea2Land Navigator, Baltic Lines Basemaps, Beach-SOS adaptation pathways, MSP-Green Recommendations, eMSP policy messages and others, to assist practitioners at different governance levels in assessing climate risks, identifying vul-nerabilities, and developing effective adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Climate change mitigation has been addressed in Policy Area Spatial Planning relevant work-shops, such as Informal Consultation Workshop on climate change and maritime spatial planning. It tackled climate-proofing of Baltic Sea Region countries’ maritime spatial plans and climate refugia in maritime spatial planning.

Securing the Future – Views from the Policy Area Coordinators

This text is originally published in the “Securing the Future – Views from the Policy Area Coordinators” publication. The publication consists of thematically focused articles that are aligned with the Strategy objectives. The texts support informed discussion on topics relevant across the Baltic Sea Region.

Download the full publication here.

David Cabana, Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Hamburg, Germany
Louis Celliers, Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Hamburg, Germany
Tina Sipkevica, Policy Area Spatial Planning Coordinator, EUSBSR, VASAB Secretariat
Dmitry Frank-Kamenetsky, Policy Area Spatial Planning Coordinator, EUSBSR, HELCOM Secretariat

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