New Insights in Flood Risk Management: Learning from Global Case Studies of Stakeholder Partnerships

This edited book highlights the innovative ways in which a wide range of public and private stakeholders are collaborating and partnering in an endeavour to co-develop solutions that aim to improve the resilience of communities to flooding.

Despite increased investments in flood risk management, government efforts in mitigating flood disasters remain under severe pressure and community support is fundamental in encouraging and upscaling local resilience strategies. At the core of this book is a demonstration of how countries are leveraging options in partnerships towards mobilising resources for both community and government efforts in enhancing flood resilience at the local, regional and national level, and before, during and after flood events. Insights from the positive impact of partnerships are shared and lessons are evaluated for adaptation into a global understanding of resilience enhancing frameworks for country specific use and guidance.

The chapters seek to cut across people, industry, the built environment and the natural environment in highlighting how challenges in partnerships are dealt through effective communication, legal and coordination practices, knowledge production, monitoring and evaluation, social incentives and green financing and funding. This book offers policy makers, government officials, and researchers in environmental and civil engineering, geography and the built environment a deeper understanding of how partnerships can be leveraged as an alternative management approach for mitigating flood hazards.

Divine Kwaku Ahadzie, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, MGhIS, MGIOC, AMASCE, CMCIH is a former Head of Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with extensive history of flood risk management research. He is an advocate for community flood risk management initiatives and is the lead author of the edited book, Flood Risk Management and Community Action: An International Perspective. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Urban Planning and Development and Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Flood Risk Management. Divine has developed significant SDG partnership collaborations and is the National Coordinator of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) BRIDGE project in Ghana. Through the BRIDGE project local communities in especially the coastal region of Ghana have benefited from capacity building programmes towards enhancing community preparedness and response to flood hazards. He is a winner of the 2020 Emerald Driving the Impact award for his research on floods and human Settlement Development.

David Proverbs, BSc (Hons), PG Cert-Ed, PhD, MBA, PFHEA, FCIOB, FRICS has pioneered the development of flood recovery approaches and property flood resilience to the benefit of many governments, agencies, charities, companies and institutions worldwide. He has published extensively on a range of flood risk management topics focusing on adaptation and resilience. He is Editor in Chief for the Journal of Flood Risk Management and the International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation. David has developed significant regional, national and international research and enterprise collaborations drawing on a range of funding sources to pioneer innovative solutions towards improving resilience to flooding. His research has had significant national and international impact in the development of UK Climate Change Policy; as a trustee advising on global research grant awards; lead innovation adviser to the UK Environment Agency’s Regional Flood and Coastal Committee; and through supporting the development of national flood risk strategies, for example in Brazil, China, Nigeria, Peru and the UK.

Robby Soetanto is a Reader in Construction Innovation Management at Loughborough University and holds the title of British Academy Global Innovation Fellow. His research concerns on the adoption and diffusion of innovation within socio-technical system, such as Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI), Nature-based Solutions (NbS), and currently focuses on advancing the third generation of innovation policy framework in flood risk management for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. He has been an investigator on research projects, funded by governments (EPSRC, NERC, EU, HEA, British Council, UKRI, Newton Fund, GCRF, UKRI, British Academy, Environment Agency) and private companies (Lloyds TSB and Hewlett Packard). He led the award-winning BIM-Hub initiative (http://bim-hub.lboro.ac.uk/), received Premier Award of the CIOB’s International Innovation and Research Awards 2014, and won 4 international best journal paper awards. He has been Visiting Professor in several top universities in Indonesia, including World Class Professor, sponsored by Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education.

Victor Oluwasina Oladokun, Ph.D., is a Professor of Industrial and Production Engineering at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. A Senior Fulbright Scholar and Commonwealth Academic Fellow, he currently serves as Head of the Department of Industrial and Production Engineering and Chair of the Board of Information Technology and Media Services. His academic and professional experience spans optimisation, enterprise systems, supply chain management, disaster-risk and flood-risk management, urban resilience, energy systems modelling, and engineering economics. He is a certified SAP trainer/consultant and a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers. Professor Oladokun has held visiting research appointments in the UK, USA, and Nigeria and previously served as Deputy Director of the University of Ibadan School of Business.