Governing for Resilience in Vulnerable Places

Civil society contributions to local level flood resilience: Before, during and after the 2015 Boxing Day floods in the Upper Calder Valley

“…Data were first collected in the Upper Calder Valley in May 2015 as part of an attempt to better understand the role and relevance of flood groups for flood resilience across England (see Forrest et al, 2017). However, after the initial data collection, several towns in the Upper Calder Valley experienced devastating flooding during Boxing Day (26 December) 2015.…”

“…Issues of power dynamics and justice affect the operationalisation of resilience in practice, but there are limited reflections of these issues, partly due to the natural science origins of resilience (Twigger-Ross et al, 2014;White & O'Hare, 2014). Consideration of these issues requires attention to the varying capacities and resources of individuals and communities and their representation in resilience approaches (Coates, 2015;Forrest et al, 2017;Restemeyer et al, 2015). This paper considers the above issues in developing a conceptual framework that considers civil society contributions to local flood resilience as withstanding and then recovering from flooding in the traditional engineering perspective of resilience.…”

“…Flood groups in Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Mytholmroyd formed after the 2012 floods with financial support from Defra's Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder Scheme, which focused on planning for future flooding through community action (Twigger-Ross et al, 2014). This led to Calderdale Council and the EA supporting the flood groups with help-in-kind and expert knowledge (Forrest et al, 2017). However, it was reported that this support was waning at the time of interviews in June 2015 as there had not been further floods since 2012.…”

“…In England, there has been a shift towards spreading FRM responsibilities across a broader range of actors in addition to the state (Johnson & Priest, 2008;Nye et al, 2011) and a greater relevance of the local level in FRM since the 1990s (Begg et al, 2015;Coates, 2015;Twigger-Ross et al, 2014). As part of this shift, there has been an increased focus on empowering and increasing the role of local non-state actors, such as citizens and communities, especially at the local level (Begg et al, 2015;Forrest et al, 2017;Johnson & Priest, 2008;Nye et al, 2011). The combination of increasing flood events, non-state-actor involvement in FRM and emphasis on the local level has led to a growing relevance of civil society in FRM.…”

Emerging citizen contributions, roles and interactions with public authorities in Dutch pluvial flood risk management

“…This increasing involvement of citizens is driven by both flood experiences and national policy agendas, such as the Participation Society in the Netherlands, that seek to stimulate citizens to be more active and willing to take a greater role in their local milieu (Seebauer et al, 2018;Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013). The contributions and emerging roles of citizens in local FRM can have implications for local flood resilience and for more holistic FRM approaches that draw on broader knowledge and expertise than in the past (Forrest, Trell, & Woltjer, 2017;Forrest et al, 2019;McEwen et al, 2018;McEwen & Jones, 2012;O'Brien et al, 2014a).…”