Prescriptions for adaptive comanagement: the case of flood management in the German Rhine basin

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Centrally administered bureaucracies are ill suited to managing the environmental resources of complex social-ecological systems. Therefore management approaches are required that can better deal with its complexity and uncertainty, which are further exacerbated by developments such as climate change. Adaptive comanagement (ACM) has emerged as a relatively novel governance approach and potential solution to the challenges arising. Adaptive comanagement hinges on certain institutional prescriptions intended to enhance the adaptability of management by improving the comprehension of and response to the complex context and surprises of social-ecological systems. The ACM literature describes that for enhanced adaptability, institutional arrangements should be polycentric, aligned with the scale of ecosystems (the bioregional approach), feature open and participatory governance, and involve much experimentation. The case of flood management in the German part of the Rhine basin is used to provide an assessment of these ideas. We analyze whether and to what degree the prescriptions have been implemented and whether or not certain fundamental changes seen in German flood management can be traced back to the application of the prescriptions. Our study demonstrates a transition from the traditional engineering and "flood control" approach to a more holistic management concept based on a risk perspective. In this process, the four ACM prescriptions have made an important contribution in preparing or facilitating policy changes. The findings suggest that the application of the prescriptions requires the right supporting context before they can be applied to the fullest extent possible, such as a high problem pressure, new discourses, or leading actors. A major constraint arises in the misalignment of political power and of the different interests of the actors, which contribute to reactive management and inadequate interplay. To address this, we recommend further analysis of the role of coordinated and long term planning. This might reveal evidence to overcome institutional coordination failures, improve knowledge transfer and communication, and increase adoption of the ACM prescriptions, with the aim to enhance adaptability of the system.

Path-dependency and policy learning in the Dutch delta: toward more resilient flood risk management in the Netherlands?

“…In the Netherlands flood risk management sector, the concept of resilience has been studied quite extensively from an engineering perspective (Vis et al 2003, de Bruijn 2004, Klijn et al 2004, Mens et al 2011). This also goes for Dutch-led studies of resilience and flood risk management outside of the Netherlands such as New York (Aerts 2014) and the German Rhine basin (Becker et al 2015). In the Netherlands resilience thinking has only been grudgingly accepted, which is especially illustrated by a cautious paradigm shift in river management toward more space for the river (Van Buuren et al 2015b).…”

Participatory and collaborative governance for sustainable flood risk management: An emerging research agenda

“…Many contributions have examined adaptive and integrative management prescriptions, which advocate stakeholder engagement and participation to varying degrees (e.g. Becker et al 2015;Huitema et al 2009;Penning-Rowsell & Johnson 2015;Medema et al 2015;van Stokkom & Witter 2008;Walker et al 2014), but there is, we argue, a need for a greater degree of critical analysis of how and under what conditions participatory and collaborative approaches work (or not) in FRM.…”

Bringing in the floods : a comparative study on controlled flooding in the Dutch, Bangladesh and Vietnamese deltas

“…The following chapters will be more specific and go into the details of the respective initiative for restored controlled flooding under scrutiny. Controlled flooding initiatives have been identified and studied in, among other regions, the Rhine-Meuse delta (see for the Netherlands Van Staveren et al [2014] and Warner [2008a], for Belgium Cox et al [2006] and Maris et al [2007], and for Germany Becker, Huitema, & Aerts [2015] and Hartmann [2010]), the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta in California, United States (Bates & Lund, 2013;Suddeth, 2011), the Thames delta in the United Kingdom (Eden & Tunstall, 2006), the Bangladesh's Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta (Nowreen, Rashed Jalal, & Khan, 2013;) and the…”

“…Over the years, river profiles improve as well as the height of the land, which is then taken into cultivation again (4). (Biggs, 2010;Ghosh, 2004;Iqbal, 2010;Nienhuis, 2008) Solid historical background, focus on water and flood management, of the deltas where case studies were conducted International examples of controlled flooding projects (Bates & Lund, 2013;Becker et al, 2015;Cox et al, 2006;Eden & Tunstall, 2006;Hartmann, 2010;Maris et al, 2007;Nowreen et al, 2013;Suddeth, 2011;Warner, 2008a) Relevance of the topic, insights in different case findings, information to base delta case selection Case-based project documentation Noordwaard de-poldering project (Projectbureau Noordwaard, 2009), Tidal River Management studies (Nowreen et al, 2013;A. Rahman, 1995;Rashid & Detailed understanding of (past) water and flood management projects or initiatives Rahman, 2010), Mekong controlled floods (Benedikter, 2013;Huu, 2011;Miller, 2003) Long-term policy plans Dutch Delta Plans (Delta Committee, 2008;Van Veen, 1962), Bangladesh Delta Plan (Consultant Team BanDuDeltAS, 2014), Mekong delta plans (NEDECO, 1993;Netherlands Delta Development Team, 1974; Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 2013), see also (Miller, 2003;Seijger et al, 2016) Background of long-term policy plan formulation Policy studies (Benedikter, 2013;Dewan, 2012;Käkönen, 2008;Rashid & Rahman, 2010;Van der Brugge, 2007) Analysis of policy change in water and flood management in the respective d...…”

“…Confronted by complex challenges taking place at the intersection of environmental dynamics, technological developments, and social processes, delta managers are turning to adaptive policies that can easily be adjusted over time when necessary (Walker et al 2001;Clark 2002;Voß and Bornemann 2011;Becker et al 2015). This rationale has been the foundation of adaptive delta management (Stratelligence, 2012) which has been developed within the context of the Dutch delta programme 10 (Delta Programme, 2015, p.138).…”