Abstract
Flooding is the most common of all natural disasters and accounts for large numbers of casualties and a high amount of economic damage worldwide. To be ‘flood resilient’, countries should have sufficient capacity to resist, the capacity to absorb and recover, and the capacity to transform and adapt. Based on international comparative research, we conclude that six key governance strategies will enhance ‘flood resilience’ and will secure the necessary capacities. These strategies pertain to: (i) the diversification of flood risk management approaches; (ii) the alignment of flood risk management approaches to overcome fragmentation; (iii) the involvement, cooperation, and alignment of both public and private actors in flood risk management; (iv) the presence of adequate formal rules that balance legal certainty and flexibility; (v) the assurance of sufficient financial and other types of resources; (vi) the adoption of normative principles that adequately deal with distributional effects. These governance strategies appear to be relevant across different physical and institutional contexts. The findings may also hold valuable lessons for the governance of climate adaptation more generally.
Highlights
Flood risks are increasing in coastal areas and river basins due to worsening hazards related to urbanization and the effects of climate change [1,2,3,4,5,6]
This section subsequently presents each of the six governance strategies that were identified on the country comparison
The lessons pertain to diversification of flood risk management approaches based on the country comparison
Summary
Flood risks are increasing in coastal areas and river basins due to worsening hazards related to urbanization and the effects of climate change [1,2,3,4,5,6] Metropolitan regions such as Bangkok, Mumbai, Jakarta, Shanghai, Dhaka, London, Hamburg, and Rotterdam are extremely vulnerable to flooding. A flood resilient system has in place the capacity to resist floods (e.g., by flood defenses), the capacity to absorb and recover from floods (e.g., by spatial planning, disaster management, insurance), and the capacity to adapt and transform (in order to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, and to cope with the consequences of floods and respond in a flexible way) [8,9]
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