Ecosystem Perceptions in Flood Prone Areas: A Typology and Its Relationship to Preferences for Governance

Abstract

Abstract:A shift appears to be occurring in thinking about flooding, from a resistance-based approach to one of resilience. Accordingly, how stakeholders in flood-prone regions perceive the system and its governance are salient questions. This study queried stakeholders' internal representations of ecosystems (resistance-or resilience-based), preferences for governance actors and mechanisms for flooding, and the relationship between them in five different regions of the world. The influence of personal experience on these variables was also assessed. Most respondents aligned themselves with a resilience-based approach in relation to system connectedness and response to disturbance; however, respondents were almost evenly split between resistance-and resilience-based approaches when considering system management. Responses generally were considered to hold for other disturbances as well. There was no clear relationship between internal representations and preferences for governance actors or mechanisms. Respondents generally favoured actor combinations that included governments and mechanism combinations that included regulations and policies. Those who had personal experience with flooding tended to align themselves with a resilience-based internal representation of system management, but personal experience showed no clear relationship with governance preferences. The findings support an evolutionary perspective of flood management where emerging paradigms enhance preceding ones, and prompt a critical discussion about the universality of resilience as a framing construct.

Re-Staging La Rasgioni: Lessons Learned from Transforming a Traditional Form of Conflict Resolution to Engage Stakeholders in Agricultural Water Governance

“…Even though the local community perceived the inefficiency of these infrastructures to be a limitation to their activity, their capacity to autonomously manage the effects of extreme weather events (and support other neighboring communities), such as for example flooding, showed the high resilience of the local system. This finding is consistent with the work of Baird et al [47], who considered five case studies in Europe, Canada, and Australia as part of their CADWAGO work on stakeholder perceptions of ecosystems in flood-prone areas. They found a general shift towards resilience in thinking about flooding.…”

“…In this sense, the La Rasgioni event achieved unprecedented results, as it provided both participants and observers with a comprehensive picture of the water dilemma and, most importantly, because it created a space for dialogue and confrontation among actors who perceived this as one of the main gaps within the water governance system. A range of theories of social and experiential learning influenced the design of the La Rasgioni process, alongside the various practitioners' experiences of social processes and working with the community [42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. Closer scrutiny of what occurred during La Rasgioni using some of these theories may help to illuminate and also provide a structure for how to move from deliberation to collective action to address some of the water governance issues of Arborea.…”

Governing in the Anthropocene: What Future Systems Thinking in Practice?

“…Whilst the CADWAGO proposal focused primarily on the dynamic between climate change and water security, it was designed to incorporate crucial links between good water governance, food security, renewable energy and the provision of multiple ecosystem services (sometimes called ‘nexus elements’) in contexts characterized by controversy and uncertainty. The key systemic design elements can be understood as: Building in a framing of: the ‘problematique’ at the heart of the water/river global challenge which recognised not only ‘nexus elements’ (IWA/IUCN/ICA, ) but that transformational action required ‘orchestrating performances in a landscape of contested resilience narratives’ whilst ‘appreciating [that] the wicked character of natural resource issues inspires a view of human nature that is not instrumental, strategic or selfish, but calls for narratives that support the fostering of concerted action through interactive, non‐violent ‘performances’ (Powell et al , ); river catchments as structurally coupled social‐biophysical systems i.e., a social system and biophysical system in a mutually changing and adapting co‐evolutionary dynamic, rather than the traditional static framing of a catchment as a hydrological or ecological, or social‐ecological system (Ison et al , ); knowledge and knowing elements with the former arising from studies in multiple contexts (international case studies) through three systemically related ‘theoretical lenses’ institutionalised as workpackages (see Baird et al ., , ; de Lourdes Melo Zurita et al , ; Westberg and Powell, ) with emergent understandings feeding into contextually designed ‘knowing’ events (see below), called ‘governance learning events’ (Figure ); the enactment of knowing transformation as a social learning process where neither changes in understanding or practice are prime, but which through facilitated learning processes build and sustain relational capital (SLIM, ; Ison et al , ; van Bommel et al , ). …”

“…(c) knowledge and knowing elements with the former arising from studies in multiple contexts (international case studies) through three systemically related 'theoretical lenses' institutionalised as workpackages (see Baird et al, 2016aBaird et al, , 2016bde Lourdes Melo Zurita et al, 2015;Westberg and Powell, 2015) with emergent understandings feeding into contextually designed 'knowing' events (see below), called 'governance learning events' ( Figure 6); (d) the enactment of knowing transformation as a social learning process where neither changes in understanding or practice are prime, but which through facilitated learning processes build and sustain relational capital (SLIM, 2004;Ison et al, 2007;van Bommel et al, 2013).…”

Development of Flood Prone Area Map for Igbokoda Township using Geospatial Technique

“…Flood has remained the second deadliest of all weather related hazards and has been detrimental to many other societies in most parts of the world because of the large numbers of fatalities and the costly damages to properties and human lives. The management of flood risk is a problem of such importance as to induce a continuous effort of the scientific community in the development of new methods of floodplain mapping [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Floods are induced by heavy rainfalls, failures of hydraulic structures, and a host of human-induced factors.…”