Delivering Integrated Flood Risk Management: Governance for Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation

This PhD thesis presents a large body of knowledge that guides academics and practitioners in the fields of transitions, adaptive co-management and flood risk management regarding approaches to Integrated Flood Risk Management (IFRM).

IFRM consists of a portfolio of measures, and its implementation is thus a highly complex task. Illustrated by four different case studies in the Netherlands, the thesis provides insights into the structures, practices and conceptual interpretations of projects that integrate stakeholders with various interests and require collaborative forms of knowledge production and adaptive management.

The cases present different projects and their visions of risk management, such as widening rivers, flood-proofing, building with water storage and multi-layer safety. The thesis targets practical and theoretical challenges such as capacity-building and learning, new forms of governance and adaptive co-management and the integration of physical and societal systems into process design. Remarkably, stakeholder activities in the case studies developed their own dynamics and extended beyond the scope of the projects. While the author stresses how collaborative forms of research can support the recognition and mainstreaming of flagship projects, which consequently encourage policy development and IFRM, readers are also encouraged to be cautious of the specificities of the Dutch water sector, in which these projects are embedded.