Interactive governance for satisfaction measurements: Stakeholder involvement in design processes for flood risk management

Abstract

The European Flood Directive (FD) shifted water management policy from flood protection to flood risk management. To facilitate the shift, a new instrument was introduced called the flood risk management plan. According to the FD, a flood risk management plan shall first take into account relevant aspects from water management, nature conservation, land use, spatial planning, navigation, and port infrastructure. Second, the flood risk management plan will be coordinated at the river basin level. This changes the spatial scope of water management compared to (old) flood protection approach and affects a broader group of stakeholder interests, namely landowners behind dikes. As a result, water management has to introduce a governance approach that facilitates stakeholder involvement in which different spatial interests are balanced, bargained and negotiated. Academic governance literature consists mostly of qualitative case studies, because of their complex nature. As a result, most governance literature operates on assumptions which make it difficult to formulate governance strategies that work based on general patterns. To contribute towards scientific methodologies for comparative research a quantitative method was developed to measure satisfaction in a stakeholder process. The method first provides new insights on the relation between interactive governance processes and the procedural satisfaction of stakeholders. Second, it provides insights that help to improve interactive governance in terms of managing a stakeholder process in such a way that greater procedural satisfaction can be achieved.