The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

A role for the public in the long-term management of English coastal flood risk?

A role for the public in the long-term management of English coastal flood risk?
A role for the public in the long-term management of English coastal flood risk?
The widely accepted flood risk management (FRM) doctrine acknowledges that measures such as control, accommodation and adaptation should constitute part of flood preparedness. We do not know the process and extent to which FRM through insurance, planning and engineering collectively manages coastal flood risk at a sub-national level in England. Therefore, this paper analyses the challenges to integrating these policy approaches to coastal FRM locally in England.

Interviews in two regions with key stakeholders (n = 45) covered the costs, timing, power, responsibility, acceptability, equity, and effectiveness of FRM. Results from a thematic analysis of responses indicate challenges around the local integration of coastal FRM are long-term management and public participation.

Respondents across insurance, engineering and planning suggested that England’s national and local policies for coastal areas lack a long-term, shared, achievable and resourced vision. Funding policies prioritise individual soft and hard engineering schemes, making it difficult to obtain long-term government funding for managing the choice to accept or retreat from coastal flood risk. Stakeholders suggested the “public” should be more aware and involved in coastal FRM, but in both case study areas there were limited examples of ongoing long-term strategies to engage the public.

The results suggest an absence of a holistic, adaptable, future vision for England’s coasts where planning and other FRM approaches are combined, and a continued absence of the public in the decision-making process. Without support to actualise long-term adaptation plans and engage the public in that process, it is likely that non-defence coastal FRM options may continue to struggle to be realised.
coastal flood risk management, responsibility, awareness, adaptation, stakeholder engagement
Engineers Australia
Van Der Plank, Sien
de5c670f-7f26-4396-9301-a5e58dd3d77f
Brown, Sally
dd3c5852-78cc-435a-9846-4f3f540f2840
Nicholls, Robert
4ce1e355-cc5d-4702-8124-820932c57076
Tompkins, Emma
a6116704-7140-4e37-bea1-2cbf39b138c3
Van Der Plank, Sien
de5c670f-7f26-4396-9301-a5e58dd3d77f
Brown, Sally
dd3c5852-78cc-435a-9846-4f3f540f2840
Nicholls, Robert
4ce1e355-cc5d-4702-8124-820932c57076
Tompkins, Emma
a6116704-7140-4e37-bea1-2cbf39b138c3

Van Der Plank, Sien, Brown, Sally, Nicholls, Robert and Tompkins, Emma (2019) A role for the public in the long-term management of English coastal flood risk? In Engineers Australia. Engineers Australia. 7 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

The widely accepted flood risk management (FRM) doctrine acknowledges that measures such as control, accommodation and adaptation should constitute part of flood preparedness. We do not know the process and extent to which FRM through insurance, planning and engineering collectively manages coastal flood risk at a sub-national level in England. Therefore, this paper analyses the challenges to integrating these policy approaches to coastal FRM locally in England.

Interviews in two regions with key stakeholders (n = 45) covered the costs, timing, power, responsibility, acceptability, equity, and effectiveness of FRM. Results from a thematic analysis of responses indicate challenges around the local integration of coastal FRM are long-term management and public participation.

Respondents across insurance, engineering and planning suggested that England’s national and local policies for coastal areas lack a long-term, shared, achievable and resourced vision. Funding policies prioritise individual soft and hard engineering schemes, making it difficult to obtain long-term government funding for managing the choice to accept or retreat from coastal flood risk. Stakeholders suggested the “public” should be more aware and involved in coastal FRM, but in both case study areas there were limited examples of ongoing long-term strategies to engage the public.

The results suggest an absence of a holistic, adaptable, future vision for England’s coasts where planning and other FRM approaches are combined, and a continued absence of the public in the decision-making process. Without support to actualise long-term adaptation plans and engage the public in that process, it is likely that non-defence coastal FRM options may continue to struggle to be realised.

Text
van der Plank et al 2019 - Hobart ACP - full paper submission JUNE - Accepted Manuscript
Download (127kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 10 July 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 September 2019
Additional Information: Paper was first published by @Engineers Australia in 2019 Coasts & Ports Conference proceedings
Venue - Dates: Australasian Coasts & Ports 2019, Hotel Grand Chancellor, Hobart, Australia, 2019-09-10 - 2019-09-13
Keywords: coastal flood risk management, responsibility, awareness, adaptation, stakeholder engagement

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 444251
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444251
PURE UUID: e547b726-ed28-4221-b456-20a0c6f6e722
ORCID for Sien Van Der Plank: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6650-4111
ORCID for Sally Brown: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1185-1962
ORCID for Robert Nicholls: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9715-1109
ORCID for Emma Tompkins: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4825-9797

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 06 Oct 2020 19:16
Last modified: 16 Aug 2024 02:01

Export record

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×