Does the concept of “resilience” offer new insights for effective policy-making? An analysis of its feasibility and practicability for flood risk management in the UK
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Authors
Gao, Shen
Advisors
Howarth, David
Date
2018-05-19Awarding Institution
University of Cambridge
Author Affiliation
Land Economy
Qualification
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Language
English
Type
Thesis
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Gao, S. (2018). Does the concept of “resilience” offer new insights for effective policy-making? An analysis of its feasibility and practicability for flood risk management in the UK (Doctoral thesis). https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.22069
Abstract
The concept of resilience is increasingly applied to policy-making. However, despite its
widespread use, resilience remains poorly defined, open to multiple interpretations, and
challenging to translate into practical policy instruments. Three particularly problematic
aspects of resilience concern its rigid conceptualisation of adaptation and learning, its
de-politicised interpretation of participatory decision-making, and the ill-defined role and
relevance of social vulnerability indicators. My research analyses these three aspects within
the context of flood risk management in the UK, which is uniquely suited to studying the
practicability of a cross-disciplinary concept like resilience, because it connects issues of
natural resource management, social planning, and disaster management. First, I analyse two
case studies of experimental pilot projects in natural flood management. Through studying
project reports, and interviewing stakeholders involved in project implementation, I determine
whether the theorised learning-by-doing method in resilience is reflected in experiences from
real experimental projects. Secondly, I use one of these case studies to map out the political
structure of local participatory bodies in flood management, and also conduct a small survey
of local community groups. The purpose of this second study is to determine if collaborative
methods can indeed lead to a knowledge-driven policy process as envisioned in resilience
literature. Lastly, I use statistical analysis to compare a traditional flood management model
and a socio-economic model. The aim of the statistical modelling is to determine whether
socio-economic factors are indeed useful for informing flooding policy, and whether they
offer new insights not already being used in modern flood management. I find that resilience
gives insufficient consideration to the importance of political constraints and economic
trade-offs in policy-making, and that evidence for the usefulness of socio-economic factors is
inconclusive. Future work could focus on further refining the statistical modelling to pinpoint
empirically verifiable indicators of resilience.
Keywords
Resilience, Flooding, survival analysis, Flood management, Policy, vulnerability
Sponsorship
Tekn. Dr. Marcus Wallenberg Foundation
Identifiers
This record's DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.22069
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Licence URL: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
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