Climate change has brought uncertainties in that are yet to be understood. The frequency and severity of extreme weather events is increasing, with flooding emerging as one of the most significant hazards with substantial impacts on communities. At the same time, society and increasing populations have accelerated negative impacts on the environment.
Vulnerable communities are struggling to meet their basic needs such as clean air and water, healthy foods, housing, and education for children. The world needs innovative solutions that not only protect communities from flooding, but also enable communities to improve their resilience, meet their basic needs, and collectively address societal challenges in the long-term.
Flood management has shifted from interventions that resist or remove water to those that retain and manage it for long-term benefits for communities—this is becoming increasingly important as the climate shifts from extreme wet periods (flooding) to extreme dry (drought).
In parallel, communities are empowered to take more responsibility to tackle the threat from flooding representing a shift to increase the role of community (bottom-up) actions alongside government and council (top-down) policies. However, the transition to build long-term resilience is not simple. A thorough change is required to successfully achieve this that involves stakeholders working collaboratively to co-design flood management approaches that are appropriate for the local context.
Recently, more sustainable approaches of managing water including those that work with nature rather than against it, referred to as Nature-based Solutions, has presented the opportunity to tackle flooding and at the same time, address societal challenges. Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) is a prime example.
The primary aim of BGI is to reduce flood risk in urban areas by developing a network of green space (such as parks) and natural/people-made water features. BGI can bring multiple social, economic, environmental co-benefits, such as improving health and nutrition, community cohesion, reducing air and water pollutions, and sustainability education for school children. Despite its potential benefits, the adoption is low. The effectiveness was found to be widely inconsistent, prompting researchers globally to establish a baseline of performance indicators, best practices, and case studies.
Flood risk is a widespread issue that can impact everyone in society, and through the development of community-forward approaches, particularly empowerment through environmental education, there is a path forward that allows people to build local, national and international resilience.
The Floodscapes research network provides a foundation of experts that work collaboratively with communities and those who influence policy to address flood and wider climate and water security challenges. The members of Floodscape reflect the understanding that flooding is a diverse issue, and has members specialising in working with communities, to public health, to computer modelling and flood forecasting.
At the centre, however, is how we effectively engage with and for communities at the local, national and world-stage to both inform and advocate for increased resilience and empowerment at all scales.
An active area of our research is how we can co-create places that are better prepared for flooding, such as the use of BGI. To ensure that it is effective and beneficial for communities, we recommend that themselves and others who are invested consider the following actions:
- Develop strategic leadership and structure to organise concerted efforts by various stakeholders through collaborative governance. Strategic leadership provides a vision and direction of sustainable transition to flood resilience future.
- Engage all stakeholders (particularly, communities impacted and the private sector) in developing viable business model and long-term financing.
- Implement incentives and disincentives, which not only focus on short-term financial matter, but more on long-term behaviour change for all stakeholders. These incentives should promote changing mind-set and investment in long-term education for young people.
- Change culture for working with BGI – dismantle barriers due to silo-thinking, nurture culture of collaboration and learning, prepare to take risk for short-term less than ideal performance for long-term outcomes, commit to long-term maintenance of BGI interventions.