Nature-based solutions in flood risk management: Unlocking spatial, functional and policy perceptions amongst practitioners in South-West England

Abstract

Nature-based solutions (NBS) to flood risk management include natural flood management (NFM) and sustainable drainage systems (SuDS). Still relatively untested in practice, their applications have been separated functionally and spatially. In this article, it is suggested that the emerging approach of managing flood risk holistically over whole catchments is hampered by the persistence of such binaries. Structural, organisational and policy contexts that entrench these divisions are explored through the experiences of flood risk practitioners working in south-west England. Interviews with 11 practitioners working in different aspects of flood risk management within the English Severn and Wye region are analysed. The key findings are grouped into two broad categories: (1) impediments faced by practitioners in implementing NBS, including different spatial NBS understandings, implementation and planning challenges and, monitoring and maintaining NBS; (2) the need for effective NBS governance focused around policy links and community involvement and incentivisation. The analysis draws out three formats of network governance in support of the expansion of cross-sectoral arrangements to plan, implement and monitor NBS flood interventions across extended river catchments in the longer term: regional administration, local lead flood organisation and participant-governed. The focus on the UK, rooted in national contexts, applies conceptually to flood risk governance scenarios in other countries.