Kristiansand to Join Major Flood Response Exercise

To train emergency response capacities for handling a large-scale flood in the Kristiansand region of Norway, Kristiansand Municipality will take part in a major emergency exercise in Agder County on 23 September 2025.

Kristiansand is part of the ClimaResponse project on improving climate resilience in the Baltic Sea Region, where it is tasked with conducting exercises related to climate event management. This exercise fits well within that mission.

“The purpose of the exercise is to train all emergency services and involved municipalities in how to collaborate when managing a large-scale flood in the Kristiansand region,” says Sigurd Paulsen, Head of Emergency Preparedness at Kristiansand Municipality.

Birkenes and Kristiansand municipalities are particularly engaged in the exercise. The Agder Police District is responsible for organising the drill, which has been in planning for over a year. The municipalities will support the police’s leadership of the rescue operation by establishing evacuation and family support centres. The exercise will also include training on how safety points for voluntarily evacuated individuals should function.

“After the exercise, we will document how collaboration with the county worked at the strategic level, how we cooperated with and supported the police and emergency services at the operational level, how the municipality’s own resources were utilised during the event, and how we worked together at the tactical level to ensure the safety of the population affected by such a natural disaster,” says Paulsen.

The results and evaluation of the exercise will notably be part of Kristiansand’s contribution to the ClimaResponse project, supporting the development of practical approaches for strengthening climate resilience across the Baltic Sea Region. ClimaResponse is led by the Council of the Baltic Sea States and co-financed by the EU’s Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme.

Programme Manual Online

Choose