We compared the governance of flood risk in England and the Netherlands, focusing on the general policies, instruments used and underlying principles. Both physical and political environments are important in explaining how countries evolved towards very different rationales of resilience. Answering questions as ‘who decides’, ‘who should act’ and ‘who is responsible and liable for flood damage’ systematically, results in a quite fundamental difference in what resilience means, and how this affects the governance regime. In the Netherlands, there is nationwide collective regime with a technocracy based on the merit of water expertise, legitimated by a social contract of government being responsible and the general public accepting and supporting this. In England there also is a technocracy, but this is part of a general-political and economic-rational decision-making process, with responsibilities spread over state, insurance companies, individuals and communities. The rationales are connected to specific conceptions of the public interest, leading to specific governance principles. In both countries, flood risk strategies are discussed in the light of climate change effects, but resilience strategies show more persistence, although combined with gradual adaptation of practices on lower scales, than great transformations.
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Research Article|
August 30 2014
The rationales of resilience in English and Dutch flood risk policies
Mark Wiering;
1Institute for Management Research, Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands
E-mail: [email protected]
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Colin Green;
Colin Green
2Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC), London, UK
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Marleen van Rijswick;
Marleen van Rijswick
3Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law, Utrecht School of Law, Achter Sint Pieter 200, 3512 HT Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Sally Priest;
Sally Priest
2Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC), London, UK
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Andrea Keessen
Andrea Keessen
3Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law, Utrecht School of Law, Achter Sint Pieter 200, 3512 HT Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Journal of Water and Climate Change (2015) 6 (1): 38–54.
Article history
Received:
February 28 2014
Accepted:
July 20 2014
Citation
Mark Wiering, Colin Green, Marleen van Rijswick, Sally Priest, Andrea Keessen; The rationales of resilience in English and Dutch flood risk policies. Journal of Water and Climate Change 1 March 2015; 6 (1): 38–54. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wcc.2014.017
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