Resilient flood-risk management at the municipal level through the lens of the Functional Resonance Analysis Model

Abstract

This exploratory study takes a closer look at the flood Risk Management (RM) system at a municipality level. The current practices of RM in municipalities follow to a large extent, a standard structure of RM processes. Their application comes short of addressing the wide range of local specificities and other complexity related socio-technical factors that can have widespread impacts, much beyond the municipal scope. This study uses concepts and ideas from the resilience engineering literature to enhance the practices of the RM system. We apply the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) to investigate the extent to which key RM activities are in line with generating anticipating, monitoring, responding and learning capabilities in the flood RM system. We examine the performance of RM functions, how they are coupled, and whether they can be sustained in the wake of a flood event. A triangulation of various qualitative research approaches is adopted, namely using semi-structured interviews, document analysis and workshop. Our findings reveal how the application of FRAM provides a deeper understanding of the underlying factors that shape the resilience of the RM process.