Evaluating flood risk management options in Scotland: A participant-led multi-criteria approach

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.06.011

Ecological Economics

Volume 64, Issue 1, 15 October 2007, Pages 70-81

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.06.011 Get rights and content

Abstract

The characteristics of flood risk management include complexity, large spatial scales, inter-temporal issues, plural values and conflicts of interests. It is argued that issues with such characteristics require public participation in the decision making process. This study builds on existing deliberative processes to develop a new participant-led multi-criteria method to evaluate flood risk management options in Scotland. The results show that participants preferred regeneration or planting of native woodland to other flood management options, and least preferred building flood walls and embankments. The design of the workshops allowed a rich dataset to reveal the thinking behind such results and provided a deeper understanding of why participants came to these conclusions.

Introduction

In Scotland the estimated annual average damage attributable to inland flooding is £185 million (Werrity and Chatterton, 2004) and if the effects of climate change proceed as predicted this is likely to increase. The potential costs of flooding together with EU legislation in the form of the Water Framework Directive and the forthcoming Floods Directive have driven renewed interest in flood risk management in Scotland. Part of this interest has focussed on assessing flood risk management techniques, including flood warning, flood water storage (JBA consulting, 2005), and techniques that might be described as sustainable flood management (RSPB, 2004).

In terms of physical characteristics flood risk management is complex, uncertain and involves large temporal and spatial scales. In terms of social characteristics it involves conflicting interests between stakeholders, a plurality of legitimate standpoints, and diffuse responsibilities and impacts. Van den Hove (2000) and Proctor and Drechsler (2006) argue that natural resource problems that display such characteristics require the use of participatory approaches for proper assessment and management. With these characteristics in mind the aim of this study is to develop and test a method to evaluate flood risk management techniques or options using a deliberative, participatory multi-criteria process with members of the public in three regions of Scotland.

The paper is structured as follows. In the next section we critically discuss a number of deliberative methods that have been used to examine natural resource issues, and highlight the pitfalls we hope to avoid and benefits we hope to draw on in developing our method. Building on this review we set out the rationale for and steps of the method developed for this study in Section 3. In Section 4 we discuss implementation of the method before setting out the analysis and results in Section 5. In Section 6 we evaluate and discuss the method before concluding.

Section snippets

Deliberative evaluation processes

In recent years the use of participatory deliberative approaches has proved particularly interesting to those in natural resource management for substantive, instrumental and normative reasons (Fiorino, 1990); substantive, in that more people are brought in to analyse the problem and greater and wider expertise is brought to bear; instrumental, in getting agreement and acceptance of the problem and possible solutions; normative, in terms of building capacity within communities to get involved

Case study areas

The methodology developed was implemented at workshops held at three locations around Scotland in September and October 2005, Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, Callander in Stirling, and Alloa in Clackmannanshire. Table 2 provides some statistics from the local authorities to give a flavour of each, and for Scotland as a whole for comparison. In terms of employment, education and health, Inverurie seems to be the best off area, with Callander second, and finally Alloa. However, in terms of housing

Method design

The method used in this case study was designed to allow public participants to assess a range of different flood risk management options in general terms, drawing on their experiences and on discussions with other participants and experts. The workshops were designed around six multi-criteria steps broadly following the DETR (2001) approach. They are set out in detail below.

Analysis and results

One of the features of the method developed and implemented in this case study is that both qualitative and quantitative data are provided for analysis. In this section, we analyse and provide results from the quantitative data, and offer a richer picture and explanation of the quantitative results with reference to some of the qualitative data obtained.

In all, 69 participants took part in the workshops. Slightly more women than men participated overall, with a good balance between age groups.

Discussion

The discussion will focus on two areas: the findings of the workshop and an evaluation of the method developed and implemented in this study. Overall, the workshop results showed that participants preferred allowing regeneration or planting of native woodland to other flood management options and least preferred building flood walls and embankments. A number of points should be made in relation to this. First, the results must be seen in the context of events that occurred just before and

Conclusion

Conducting participant-led MC workshops to determine preferences for flood risk management options in Scotland provided some notable results: that participants preferred regeneration or planting of native woodland to other flood management options, and least preferred building flood walls and embankments. The design of the workshops allowed a rich dataset to reveal the thinking behind such results and provided a deeper understanding of why participants came to these conclusions.

The workshops

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful for the support of a SEERAD research fellowship. Thanks to Jackie Potts for her statistical advice on this project and Joanna Kemp for her research assistance.

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METHODSEvaluating flood risk management options in Scotland: A participant-led multi-criteria approach

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Deliberative evaluation processes

Case study areas

Method design

Analysis and results

Discussion

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Ecological Economics

Ecological Economics

Forest Policy and Economics

Health Policy

Ecological Economics

Forest Ecology and Management

Ecological Economics

Land Use Policy

Ecological Economics

Improving the process of valuing non-market benefits: combining citizen's juries with choice modelling

Land Economics

The theory of planned behaviour

Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes

Citizens juries: one solution for difficult environmental questions

Go with the flow: the natural approach to sustainable flood management in Scotland

A Report by Caroline Davies for the RSPB Scotland

Deliberative Mapping: Appraising Options for Addressing ‘the Kidney Gap’

METHODS
Evaluating flood risk management options in Scotland: A participant-led multi-criteria approach