Civil society contributions to local level flood resilience

Before, during and after the 2015 Boxing Day floods in the Upper Calder Valley

Bibliographic Data

ID8964026
AuthorsSteven Forrest (0000-0001-5350-6441, Department of Spatial Planning and Environment Faculty of Spatial Sciences University of Groningen Groningen The Netherlands, corresponding author), Elen‐maarja Trell (Department of Spatial Planning and Environment Faculty of Spatial Sciences University of Groningen Groningen The Netherlands), Elen-Maarja Trell (0000-0003-4419-6474, University of Groningen), Johan Woltjer (0000-0003-3179-6294, Department of Planning and Transport Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment University of Westminster London UK)
Year2018
Volume44
Issue2
Pages422-436
Publication date2018-11-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/tran.12279
OpenAlexW2903282570
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited40

There is an increasing emphasis on the local level as well as growing expectations regarding civil society actors in flood‐risk management in the UK . However, not enough is known about the potential contributions of civil society to flood resilience at the local level. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by conceptualising flood resilience at the local level across three phases inherent to flood disasters: pre‐flood, during the flood and post‐flood. These phases act as the foundation for this paper's exploration of the contributions of civil society to local‐level flood resilience. Data were collected before, during and after the 2015 Boxing Day floods through interviews (in 2015 and 2017) and from secondary data sources. The paper identifies the importance of time and place when analysing civil society contributions to local level flood resilience. These contributions were dynamic over time with a strong initial response that diminished over time due to apathy, “active forgetting” and lack of further exposure. Exposure and a sense of community strongly influenced civil society contributions to flood resilience in the Upper Calder Valley. Issues of representation and varying place‐based capacities were also identified as relevant for flood resilience‐based policies. These results have larger implications for our understanding of the contributions of civil society actors to flood resilience and suggest that while they can deliver better local context‐specific approaches, there needs to be caution over the long‐term sustainability and longevity of their contributions

Archaeology · Civil society · Context (archaeology · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Flood myth · Flooding (psychology · Geography · Political science · Politics · Psychological resilience · Resilience (materials science · Sociology · Disaster Management and Resilience · Environmental Science · Flood Risk Assessment and Management · Infrastructure Resilience and Vulnerability Analysis · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology

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