Flood Risk Management in England: A Changing Landscape of Risk Responsibility?

Johnson, Clare; Priest, Sally J.

doi:10.1080/07900620801923146

Cited by 189 publications

(187 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…In the specific case of flood hazards, the traditional reliance on engineering flood defences is now giving way to new approaches that frame flooding as risk to be accepted and managed (Butler & Pidgeon 2011;Johnson & Priest 2008;Porter & Demeritt in press). As the government's flooding strategy for England explains, "for the system to work effectively, the public needs to understand and act on the advice and information given" (Defra, 2004: para 13.1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flooding and the framing of risk in British broadsheets, 1985–2010

Escobar

Demeritt

2012

Public Underst Sci

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Our analysis of 2707 news stories explores the framing of flooding over the past quarter century and the displacement of a once dominant understanding of flooding as an agricultural problem of land drainage by the contemporary concern for its urban impacts, particularly to homes and property. We document dramatic changes in the volume and variety of reporting about flooding since 2000 as the risks of flooding have become more salient, the informal 'Gentlemen's Agreement' between government and private insurers has broken down, and flood management subjected to greater public scrutiny. While the historic reliance on private insurance remains largely unchallenged, we show that other aspects of flood hazard management are now topics of active political debate to which the looming threat of climate change adds both urgency and exculpatory excuses for poor performance. We conclude by reflecting on the significance of the case for grand theories of neoliberalization and governmentality.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flooding and the framing of risk in British broadsheets, 1985–2010

Escobar

Demeritt

2012

Public Underst Sci

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“…At present, the government and insurance sector in England are renegotiating significant changes to flood insurance cover related to public management. A move towards risk-sensitive insurance would represent a significant development of the social contract, in terms of responsibility for adaptation between state, market and individuals but could also alter the profile of moral hazard (given that public consultation induces government emphasis on the more vulnerable that voice their concerns) 27,28 . Such developments may lead to unjust outcomes: underpinning these discussions are tensions extant in the English context, where millions already inhabit areas prone to flooding.…”

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confidence: 99%

Changing social contracts in climate-change adaptation

et al. 2012

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Risks from extreme weather events are mediated through state, civil society and individual action 1,2 . We propose evolving social contracts as a primary mechanism by which adaptation to climate change proceeds. We use a natural experiment of policy and social contexts of the UK and Ireland affected by the same meteorological event and resultant flooding in November 2009. We analyse data from policy documents and from household surveys of 356 residents in western Ireland and northwest England. We find significant differences between perceptions of individual responsibility for protection across the jurisdictions and between perceptions of future risk from populations directly affected by flooding events. These explain differences in stated willingness to take individual adaptive actions when state support retrenches. We therefore show that expectations for state protection are critical in mediating impacts and promoting longer-term adaptation. We argue that making social contracts explicit may smooth pathways to effective and legitimate adaptation.It is clear that climate change will not be experienced as a smooth change in mean conditions, but as a series of extreme weather events, possibly leading to crises in policy and planning. These can offer opportunities for investment and legislation while there is public support and attention 3,4 . Understanding how events shape the direction of adaptation requires a theory of the process of change.Social contract theory has a long history in political philosophy. It explains how governments and responsibility evolve over time as emerging risks pose challenges to the established consensus concerning the role of the state. Social contract theory is contested: there are profound debates on the balance of power between civil society and the state. Recent applications suggest that adaptation and resilience could lead to renegotiation of social contracts because of the co-evolving nature of risks and multi-actor influences on change 5 .

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“…Having the fact that flood defense cannot be against all floods [13] or in other words recognizing the limits of structural flood defense [14][15][16], and witnessing that the extensive investment in flood control works does not decrease the flood occurrence nor damages [17], solution for flood risk reduction has moved from hard to soft engineering solution and nonstructural approaches [18]. It is more promising to meet the "demands of sustainable development, a more strategic, holistic and long-term approach" of flood risk management [19].…”

Section: Complementary Soft Engineering To Hard Engineering For Floodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specifying risk management standard for flood risk assessment: a framework for resources allocation

2017

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Abstract. General risk management standard, e.g. ISO 31000:2009, approaches risk as a coin with a pair of two sides, i.e. the threat and the opportunity. However, it is hardly the case of flood events which mainly come as threats. Despite the contrary, this study explores the potential applicability of the available risk management standards specifically for flood. It then also synthesizes the components to result a framework for allocating resources among various strategies to result the optimum flood risk reduction. In order to review its applicability, the framework is then reviewed using several historic flood risk reduction cases. Its results are qualitatively discussed and summarized including the possible improvement of the framework for further applications.

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Flood Risk Management in England: A Changing Landscape of Risk Responsibility?

Cited by 189 publications

References 7 publications

Flooding and the framing of risk in British broadsheets, 1985–2010

Flooding and the framing of risk in British broadsheets, 1985–2010

Changing social contracts in climate-change adaptation

Specifying risk management standard for flood risk assessment: a framework for resources allocation

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