Typologies of citizen co-production in flood risk governance

Abstract

Citizens in Europe are increasingly being encouraged by policymakers to contribute to flood risk governance (FRG) by taking individual and/or community-based flood risk measures (e.g. implementing property-level measures). This trend might be described as a transition towards ‘co-produced’ FRG between public authorities and citizens. The co-production trend is mirrored in literature, with an increasing number of publications discussing citizen involvement in the implementation of FRG. Still, this research is in its infancy and requires more systematic insight into the prevalence, success factors and side effects of co-produced FRG. This article contributes to this endeavour by looking across disciplinary boundaries to critically examine the extent to which co-production types identified in other policy domains match the diversity of co-production forms witnessed in FRG. Taking this co-production literature as a starting point, the authors assemble three typologies to capture the different forms of co-production witnessed in FRG. In order to do so, examples of FRG co-production were identified in England (UK), Flanders (Belgium), France, the Netherlands and Poland, through document analysis and in-depth interviews. These examples were used to test and redevelop co-production typologies described in literature. The resulting typologies concentrate on the i) type of interaction, ii) the role and type of citizen input and iii) the distribution of contributions and benefits. These frameworks have the potential to not only serve as important heuristic devices for future empirical research, but may also facilitate more reflexive governance in practice.