Saving Cork City? Place attachment and conflicting framings of flood hazards

Abstract

Conflicts in flood hazards decision-making and policy have important implications for both disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. This study uses a frame analysis to examine the disputed Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme in Cork, Ireland. This analysis reveals a multi-party and multi-perspective dispute that is more complex than the two sided conflict it may appear to be at first glance. However despite this diversity of views, many of the stakeholders involved share similar assumptions about flood risk and its management, reflecting the role of a dominant discourse in setting the boundaries of debate. Place attachment emerges as a key cross cutting theme, of importance to both opponents and proponents of the proposed scheme. Place attachment can act as either a barrier to transformative adaptation or as a motivator for action. While highlighting areas of disagreement between local stakeholders, conflicts such as the Cork dispute can also represent new opportunities to engage wider constituencies with hazards management and to bring new perspectives into the decision-making process. The emergence of place attachment as a cross cutting theme illustrates that using place as a boundary concept around which to centre the decision-making process may allow for the testing of new approaches to hazards management and climate change adaptation. These would incorporate both a wider range of stakeholders including those not directly impacted by hazards, and a broader range of issues, situating hazards management within a wider context.

Climate Change, Voluntary Immobility, and Place-Belongingness: Insights from Togoru, Fiji

“…Adams [33] identifies that place attachment can create reluctance to leave places of environmental vulnerability because people feel safe, have established livelihoods and social networks, and have deep obligations to care for family and friends. More broadly, people with strong place attachment are often resistant to transformative forms of adaptation [51,52] and can perceive transformational adaptations as unfair or inadequate owing to the loss of important placebased connections [43]. Notably, studies of place attachment focus disproportionately on the social dimensions of place (social relationships and identities) as opposed to the spatial dimensions [47,53].…”

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't: The impact of economic rationalist imperatives on the adaptive capacity of public infrastructure in Brisbane, Australia and Cork, Ireland

“…The CFRAM planning process was initiated by the OPW in 2006 and was ongoing at the time of the 2009 floods (Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government [JCEHLG], 2010). The initiative received minimal public attention until the latter stages of the process when the OPW proposed significant flood management infrastructure for the city centre that has met with strong public opposition (Jeffers, 2019; OPW, 2017) (Figure 2).…”

“…The High Court proceedings from which much of this analysis was drawn, had concluded that the ESB were 60% responsible for downstream damage to the plaintiff's property (UCC v ESB, 2015). This judgement was subsequently over-turned on appeal, but the case now awaits final judgement in the Supreme Court (Jeffers, 2019).…”

Building constituencies for flood risk management: Critical insights from a flood defences dispute in Ireland

“…The history of flood hazards in Cork and the current dispute are both multifaceted, and previously published research has addressed several aspects of flood risk management in the Lee catchment. This has included the ways in which normative interpretations of climate risk influence local decision‐making (McDermott & Surminski, 2018), the importance of the built environment and its role in risk perception (O'Neill, 2018), the role of place attachment in shaping framings of flood hazards (Jeffers, 2019), barriers to transformation in the decision‐making process (Jeffers, 2020), and the role of economic imperatives in shaping dam management practices (Tangney, 2020). The specific focus of this paper is on examining the size and composition of the constituencies of individuals and groups who have engaged with flood risk management decision‐making, and the breadth of interests or motivations driving that engagement.…”