Transition towards integrated flood risk management strategies
Year of publication
2025
Author(s)
Jean-Marie Buijs
Flavia Simona Cosoveanu
Marloes Bakker
Teun Terpstra
Summary
The Interreg North Sea region project FRAMES, Flood Resilience by Multi-LayerEd Safety, addressed the shared territorial challenge of climate change impacts, specifically the physical, economic and social effects of floods. To deal with future climate uncertainties, alternative options need to be considered for the future of flood risk management (FRM), including spatial planning and emergency management. This has been framed as a multilayered safety (MLS) approach. In FRAMES, 16 pilot projects have experimented with diverse MLS measures in a transition from a protection dominated approach towards more integrated FRM strategies. In this article, the pilot results are analysed through the transition management mechanisms of deepening, broadening, and upscaling. We found that pilots provide relevant understanding about shifts in thinking, perspectives and practices of mitigation via spatial planning, preparedness and recovery. The results show that each of these MLS strategies apply a different combination of transition mechanisms.