Sammendrag
This article maps out the range of municipalities’ responsibility to implement permanent preventive measures against natural peril risk for the built environment. The responsibility is interpreted in the context of their responsibility for climate change adaptation, civil protection and to ensure construction on safe ground. Interviews substantiate that the applicable law and municipalities’ understanding of responsibility do not correspond. The municipalities mainly do not implement preventive measures at their own expense in cases where the national government has not provided funding. Spatial planning and emergency preparedness gets priority. A few legal sources tend to have led to deviant administrative practices, in combination with a lack of resources. There is a need for a clarification of the interface and placement of responsibility. For the municipalities to become more proactive the most obvious is to use opportunities that already exist, such as reimbursement access.