Towards more resilient flood risk governance

Climate change is indisputably affecting weather patterns around the globe, with Europe recently seeing some of the worst floods in modern history. Governments are increasing efforts to adjust to these weather phenomena in a variety of ways, such as developing new guidelines and practices for managing floods. The EU-funded project STAR-FLOOD represents one of these initiatives.

Bringing together researchers, both senior and junior, with social, scientific and legal backgrounds from eight research institutes in six European countries, the project is outlining recommendations to implement and align flood risk management strategies in urban areas. These are intended for use by local stakeholders, national governments and global organisations for implementing and aligning the strategies of flood preparation, prevention, defence, mitigation and recovery.

Already, the project team has conducted an extended problem analysis in six European countries and published four reports on flood problems/interventions, governance challenges, European flood regulation, and similarities/differences among project countries. It also articulated an assessment framework and case study approach on researching flood risk governance in Europe.

Other accomplishments so far include an expert panel together with the Working Group on Floods of the Common Implementation Strategy of the Water Framework Directive in which objectives, measures and prioritisation of flood risk management strategies were explored. A report on the workshop's results and various knowledge dissemination activities was published and disseminated afterwards. Participation in conferences and events is also strengthening the project's goals, as are the preparation of a first policy brief on flood risk management and development of an online practitioners’ guide.

In terms of output, STAR-FLOOD recently submitted and published papers in several peer-reviewed scientific articles on various topics related to flood risk governance. Once the project is over, its results will undoubtedly support authorities and stakeholders in high-risk urban areas across Europe to design better and more resilient flood risk governance arrangements.