Shock events and flood risk management: a media analysis of the institutional long-term effects of flood events in the Netherlands and Poland

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Flood events that have proven to create shock waves in society, which we will call shock events, can open windows of opportunity that allow different actor groups to introduce new ideas. Shock events, however, can also strengthen the status quo. We will take flood events as our object of study. Whereas others focus mainly on the immediate impact and disaster management, we will focus on the long-term impact on and resilience of flood risk governance arrangements. Over the last 25 years, both the Netherlands and Poland have suffered several flood-related events. These triggered strategic and institutional changes, but to different degrees. In a comparative analysis these endogenous processes, i.e., the importance of framing of the flood event, its exploitation by different actor groups, and the extent to which arrangements are actually changing, are examined. In line with previous research, our analysis revealed that shock events test the capacity to resist and bounce back and provide opportunities for adapting and learning. They "open up" institutional arrangements and make them more susceptible to change, increasing the opportunity for adaptation. In this way they can facilitate a shift toward different degrees of resilience, i.e., by adjusting the current strategic approach or by moving toward another strategic approach. The direction of change is influenced by the actors and the frames they introduce, and their ability to increase the resonance of the frame. The persistence of change seems to be influenced by the evolution of the initial management approach, the availability of resources, or the willingness to allocate resources.

Doing more while remaining the same? Flood risk governance in Poland

“…It became a burning policy issue and showed that the existing flood risk governance was inadequate and insufficiently funded (Kalb and Tak, ). The poor condition of flood defence infrastructure and underinvestment were discussed by the media (Kaufmann et al ., in review) and this had its impact on discourses, and related decisions.…”

Cross-sector collaboration within Dutch flood risk governance: historical analysis of external triggers

“…The implementation of traditional FRM approaches, such as dike reinforcement, is usually rationalized by the urgency of responding immediately to large-scale flood shocks (Kaufmann, Lewandowski, Choryński, & Wiering, 2016) and the consequent political pressure to 'do something' (Zevenbergen, Van Herk, & Rijke, 2017). Fortunately, since 1953, the Netherlands has not been exposed to a major flooding event.…”

The Ascending and Fading of a Progressive Policy Instrument: The Climate Change Factor in Southern Germany

“…The professional culture [43] of flood management is traditionally connected to measuring and predicting the behavior of climate, weather, and precipitation as sources of the problem, and the consequential planning and construction of technical flood protection measures as solutions to the problem. Both the definition of the problem and the policies that deal with the problem are disaster driven, meaning that each major flood event creates renewed pressure mostly on policymakers to give rushed real solutions [44,45].…”