National/local policy tensions in flood risk management: An international comparison

Abstract

In recent years, both the French and the English states have played an important and newly enhanced role in flood hazard response. Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 25 and Plan de prévention des risques (PPR) policies exemplify the shift towards a strategic and multi-method approach to land and water management—a flood risk management approach. However, evidence from 72 semi-structured interviews suggests that these new policies are not properly implemented at the local level, as can be clearly seen in Seine-Amont, France and East London, UK. Flood management is not a priority on local planning authorities' agendas and there are often tensions and even conflicts between national and local levels as far as flood management is concerned. The analysis of these tensions shows that effective flood governance at all levels of the planning system could be better achieved by a ‘bottom-up’ approach to flood management, in which central government gives the local authorities the opportunity to build resilient places better able to cope with the flood hazard in the longer term. Such an approach requires better coordination between stakeholders, more clarity and transparency in hazard assessment, and proper integration of emergency issues into flood incident management. Regeneration areas offer the opportunity to tackle these issues from the early stages of development projects.