Floods as Catalysts for Policy Change: Historical Lessons from England and Wales

Abstract

The tied relationship between flood disasters and the demand for a policy response is well known. What is not well known is how and why particular policy ideas emerge as policy change options. Drawing on the public policy theoretical literature, the paper evaluates the policy impact of four of the most significant flood disasters in England and Wales in the past 50 years. In so doing, it seeks to highlight which of the environmental, contextual and behavioural drivers have, in the past, been critical factors in the elevation of policy options to policy agendas. By monitoring changes in such drivers we can offer an understanding of the potential policy changes that may occur in response to flood disasters in the future.

Debates—Perspectives on socio‐hydrology: Capturing feedbacks between physical and social processes

“…This effect can be mainly attributed to the enhanced coping and adaptation capacities gained by the community during their earlier experience of flooding. Besides informal dynamics, flood risk management policy also responds to flood events [Johnson et al, 2005;Pahl-Wostl et al, 2013;Penning-Rowsell et al, 2006]. Early warning systems, community engagement programs to raise awareness to flood risk, and changes to land use planning are examples of adaptation measures that often occur at the local or central government level following a flood event.…”

“We cannot let this happen again”: reversing UK flood policy in response to the Somerset Levels floods, 2014

“…Given that the same local actors struggled to raise funds to dredge the rivers following the 2012 floods, the national policy reversal is beginning to look temporary rather than a signal of things to come (Penning-Rowsell et al 2005). It does, however, set an interesting precedent for future flood events both locally and nationally.…”

“…They also suggest that there may be signals within the current policy discourse that are able to indicate or predict future policy shifts. Indeed, Johnson et al (2005) highlight how crises can act as catalysts for change where incremental policy changes, over long periods, feed into sudden policy shifts.…”

“…From the perspective of Kingdon's framework (1995), crises provide an opportunity for enhancing social learning and accelerated policy change (Johnson et al 2005): it is those policies that are ready to be exploited during a window of opportunity and that are amenable to refinement during periods of stability and incremental change that are prime candidates for adoption. To be ready for adoption in a time of crisis, such policies require monitoring and knowledge of issues, actors and associated ideas.…”

“…Kingdon's (1995) thesis on policy change, known as the Multiple Streams Framework, offers a heuristic for understanding how and why environmental policies gain or lose political support in fields such as climate change (Keskitalo et al 2013;Pralle 2009), flood risk (Johnson et al 2005;Penning-Rowsell et al 2006), and food production (Ackrill & Kay 2011). For Kingdon, a major crisis can act as a catalyst for change, opening up 'windows of opportunity' that allow new ideas, or existing ones, to jump up the policy agenda as the three streams: (i) defining what is the problem, (ii) identifying what are the policy responses, and (iii) the politics of the situation at hand, all converge.…”