Moving from Flood Resistance to Resilience: “Still doing it the hard way” in Western Canada
Date
2019-10-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0001-8948-1733
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Doctoral
Abstract
Flooding poses a significant threat to society, a threat that is likely to increase with changing climate. Over recent decades, the limitations of a historical reliance on command and control approaches to flood risk management (FRM) have been recognised and scholarly and practical effort has been made towards becoming flood resilient rather than flood resistant. Despite these efforts, the cost of flood events continues to rise. Progressing FRM in a way that increases resilience to flooding requires a better understanding of the challenges that exist when attempting to operationalise theoretical principles of resilience in practice. Empirical studies of FRM implementation, however, are not well represented in the literature. This thesis enhances understanding of the challenges involved in operationalising flood resilience concepts. To achieve this aim, scholarly literature self-identified by the authors as being related to flood risk management, governance and resilience was analysed, and the Prairie Provinces of Canada were utilised as a case study of FRM practice, priorities and preferences.
It was found that rather than tackling flood resilience as a defined research topic, FRM and flood resilience research is carried out in specialised disciplinary silos and which does not relate well to the challenges of implementing FRM. Within the Canadian Prairie Provinces, FRM practitioners understand the need for a diverse policy approach to flood risk and for more coordinated and collaborative management; however, challenges from fragmented governance exist in the region including unclear roles and responsibilities, policy conflicts, and inefficiency. Broadly effective emergency planning and response suggests that these challenges are not insurmountable. The FRM priorities of stakeholders are similar across the study area suggesting that there is an underlying foundation for an inter-provincial regional strategy. The heterogeneous policy preferences between provinces and homogenous preferences within provinces, however, present challenges to implementing coordinated multi-level FRM strategies. Importantly, it was found that existing flood policy instruments may not be effective in influencing policy choices, and that innovation is required in this area to progress more resilient FRM. Overall, the findings of this thesis strongly support: the need for close linkages between the academic and practice communities; that research and policy programs should treat FRM as a distinct, holistic, issue, and; that organisations or agencies are needed to facilitate the coordination of stakeholders and resources required to research, manage and continually improve FRM.
Description
Keywords
Flooding, Resilience, Flood Risk Management, Governance
Citation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Geography and Planning
Program
Geography