Dealing with change and uncertainty within the regulatory frameworks for flood defense infrastructure in selected European countries

Goytia, Susana; Pettersson, Maria; Schellenberger, Thomas; Doorn-Hoekveld, Willemijn J. van; Priest, Sally J.

doi:10.5751/es-08908-210423

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Flood risk governance requires a delicate balancing act between legal certainty-that is the assurance that one's rights are clear and will be respected-and flexibility which might be necessary for adaptive governance [34,35]. To establish the different resilience capacities, both are needed to some extent.…”

Section: Adequate Formal Rules That Balance Legal Certainty and Fleximentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, to achieve a high capacity to adapt and transform, formal rules should also provide enough flexibility to enable tailored local approaches and adaptive pathways whereby a change in course is possible if dynamics require it, e.g., due to urbanization or climate change patterns. At the same time, we face the challenge of not sacrificing legal certainty, including the possibility to hold public authorities accountable [34]. Flexibility and the possibility to adapt because of changing circumstances is generally provided by multiple year planning cycles, for example, the six year planning cycle of water plans in The Netherlands.…”

Section: Adequate Formal Rules That Balance Legal Certainty and Fleximentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, both the nature and implementation of the FD lead to concerns about its ability to achieve its aims. An important lesson is that its lack of substantive requirements and strong reliance on procedural obligations might undermine its ability to lead to increased flood resilience [34][35][36]. The FD may serve as a good practice to develop a comprehensive overview of flood risks, which enables decision-makers and the broad public to be aware of the risk in their living environment.…”

Section: Adequate Formal Rules That Balance Legal Certainty and Fleximentioning

confidence: 99%

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Governance Strategies for Improving Flood Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

Driessen

Hegger

Kundzewicz

et al. 2018

Water

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Flooding is the most common of all natural disasters and accounts for large numbers of casualties and a high amount of economic damage worldwide. To be 'flood resilient', countries should have sufficient capacity to resist, the capacity to absorb and recover, and the capacity to transform and adapt. Based on international comparative research, we conclude that six key governance strategies will enhance 'flood resilience' and will secure the necessary capacities. These strategies pertain to: (i) the diversification of flood risk management approaches; (ii) the alignment of flood risk management approaches to overcome fragmentation; (iii) the involvement, cooperation, and alignment of both public and private actors in flood risk management; (iv) the presence of adequate formal rules that balance legal certainty and flexibility; (v) the assurance of sufficient financial and other types of resources; (vi) the adoption of normative principles that adequately deal with distributional effects. These governance strategies appear to be relevant across different physical and institutional contexts. The findings may also hold valuable lessons for the governance of climate adaptation more generally.

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Section: Adequate Formal Rules That Balance Legal Certainty and Fleximentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Adequate Formal Rules That Balance Legal Certainty and Fleximentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Adequate Formal Rules That Balance Legal Certainty and Fleximentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Governance Strategies for Improving Flood Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

Driessen

Hegger

Kundzewicz

et al. 2018

Water

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The consideration of climate change and its effects on future risks provides a key justification for the creation of the Directive (recital 4, FD). Clarvis et al (2014) identify a number of actionable legal mechanisms that facilitate and encourage change, including time-limited licensing, emergency provisions and powers, and monitoring standards (see also Goytia et al 2016). Importantly, however, these are not required by the FD, but might be used locally or nationally to promote more adaptive FRM.…”

Section: Adaptabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The European Union approach to flood risk management and improving societal resilience: lessons from the implementation of the Floods Directive in six European countries

Priest¹,

Suykens²,

Rijswick³

et al. 2016

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Diversity in flood risk management approaches is often considered to be a strength. However, in some national settings, and especially for transboundary rivers, variability and incompatibility of approaches can reduce the effectiveness of flood risk management. Placed in the context of increasing flood risks, as well as the potential for flooding to undermine the European Union's sustainable development goals, a desire to increase societal resilience to flooding has prompted the introduction of a common European Framework. We provide a legal and policy analysis of the implementation of the Floods Directive (2007/60/EC) in six countries: Belgium (Flemish region), England, France, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden. Evaluation criteria from existing legal and policy literature frame the study of the Directive and its effect on enhancing or constraining societal resilience by using an adaptive governance approach. These criteria are initially used to analyze the key components of the EU approach, before providing insight of the implementation of the Directive at a national level. Similarities and differences in the legal translation of European goals into existing flood risk management are analyzed alongside their relative influence on policy and practice. The research highlights that the effect of the Floods Directive on increasing societal resilience has been nationally variable, in part because of its focus on procedural obligations, rather than on more substantive requirements. Analysis shows that despite a focus on transboundary river basin management, existing traditions of flood risk management have overridden objectives to harmonize flood risk management in some cases. The Directive could be strengthened by requiring more stringent cooperation and providing the competent authorities in international river basin districts with more power. Despite some shortcomings in directly affecting flood risk outcomes, the Directive has positively stimulated discussion and flood risk management planning in countries that were perhaps lagging behind.

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“…These issues are discussed in separate papers in this special feature. Goytia et al (2016) analyze the extent to which regulatory frameworks for flood defense infrastructure in a selection of European countries allow for actors to handle change and uncertainty associated with flood risks, while simultaneously upholding legal principles such as the rule of law. The authors conclude that legal rules are most open to complexity and uncertainty when infrastructures do not yet exist.…”

Section: Cross-cutting Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward more resilient flood risk governance

Driessen¹,

Hegger²,

Bakker³

et al. 2016

E&S

103

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ABSTRACT. Countries all over the world face increasing flood risks because of urbanization and the effects of climate change. In Europe, flooding is the most common of all natural disasters and accounts for the largest number of casualties and highest amount of economic damage. The current scientific debate on how urban agglomerations can be made more resilient to these flood risks includes a discussion on how a diversification, coordination, and alignment of flood risk management strategies (FRMSs), including flood risk prevention through proactive spatial planning, flood defense, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and flood recovery, can contribute to flood resilience. Although effective implementation of FRMSs can be considered a necessary precondition for resilience, efficient and legitimate flood risk governance can enhance this societal resilience to flooding. Governance and legal research has the potential to provide crucial insights into the debate on how to improve resilience. Yet the social sciences have only looked into this issue in a fragmented manner, often without a comparative scope. This special feature addresses this knowledge gap by focusing on the scope and workings of FRMSs, but also on cross-cutting topics such as uncertainties, distributional effects, solidarity, knowledge management, and citizen participation. The papers included in this feature are written by both policy analysts and legal scholars. The above-mentioned issues are thus approached via a multidisciplinary perspective. All papers convincingly show that one-size-fits-all solutions for appropriate and resilient flood risk governance arrangements do not exist. Governance arrangements should be tailored to the existing physical, socio-cultural, and institutional context. This requires an open and transparent debate between scientists and practitioners on the normative starting point of flood risk governance, a clear division of responsibilities, the establishment of connectivity between actors, levels, and sectors through bridging mechanisms, and adequate knowledge infrastructures, both nationally and internationally.

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Dealing with change and uncertainty within the regulatory frameworks for flood defense infrastructure in selected European countries

Cited by 17 publications

References 34 publications

Governance Strategies for Improving Flood Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

Governance Strategies for Improving Flood Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

The European Union approach to flood risk management and improving societal resilience: lessons from the implementation of the Floods Directive in six European countries

Toward more resilient flood risk governance

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