The EU Floods Directive trickling down: tracing the ideas of integrated and participatory flood risk management in Sweden

Abstract

This study examines how the EU Floods Directive – an extensive and innovative legislative instrument for integrated and participatory flood risk planning in all EU member states – influences local flood risk management in one member state, Sweden. The study identifies that: many municipalities have received new knowledge; cross-sectoral organisational structures for water and flood risk issues at the local level are being formed or strengthened; and the flood risk issue has been elevated up the political agenda. There are also however clear signs that a number of other fundamental issues are not being adequately addressed in the complex institutional setting that results from the directive's implementation. These issues are undoubtedly obstructing the development of a more integrated and participatory flood risk management system. Of key importance here are questions relating to how roles and mandates are communicated and adopted, the lack of coordination between the Floods Directive and the Water Framework Directive, and the inadequate involvement of the municipal level and other stakeholders. Practical recommendations on how to redirect development towards more positive outcomes in these areas are thus formulated.

Obligation or Innovation: Can the EU Floods Directive Be Seen as a Tipping Point Towards More Resilient Flood Risk Management? A Case Study from Vorarlberg, Austria

“…As the levels of detail vary in the assessments of different studies [88], as do the management approaches in the nine Austrian provinces, implications for other regions are difficult to grasp. Likewise, authors of a Swedish study argue that specific recommendations are difficult to generalise from a case study perspective [25]. Although action was taken to fulfil requirements of the FD and generally efforts were made to improve FRM, a re-examination of this contribution will be required once the policy cycle ends in 2021 in order to assess whether an adaptation tipping point occurred.…”

“…While existing research has discussed the FD and its impacts in several countries [22,[24][25][26][27], there is a lack of research on whether innovative change has occurred through the implementation of the FD or not. Generally, in directives the power of obligation differs significantly, which can affect legal efficiency [28].…”

Flood risk assessments—Exploring maturity and challenges in Sweden

“…They also observed that most of the described consequences were tangible and direct; thus, intangible and indirect consequences of flooding were noticeably missing in the assessments. Other challenges related to implementing the FD in Sweden include, for example, a lack of trust that national authorities will provide necessary input for local flood risk managers (Becker, 2018) and unclear roles and mandates among key concerned actors such as municipalities (Hedelin, 2017).…”

Social network analysis of EU flood risk management plans: Case Finland

“…While it is actively implemented in EU member states, its implementation has also raised challenges related both to flood risk management (e.g., practical risk analysis and planning) and related governance (e.g., broader societal arrangements and processes); see Section 2.1. Such challenges relate, for example, to the diversification of strategies, adaptation, participation, (Gralepois, 2020), cooperation (Dieperink et al, 2016), lack of clear roles and responsibilities (Hedelin, 2016; Snel et al, 2020) as well as effective stakeholder engagement (e.g., Edelenbos et al, 2017; Pasquier et al, 2020) related to floods and their governance. Together, these challenges indicate a need for a better understanding of the social processes and actor relations in flood risk governance (e.g., Hartmann & Driessen, 2017).…”