Saving Cork City? Place attachment and conflicting framings of flood hazards

Conflicts in flood hazards decision-making and policy have important implications for both disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. This study uses a frame analysis to examine the disputed Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme in Cork, Ireland. This analysis reveals a multi-party and multi-perspective dispute that is more complex than the two sided conflict it may appear to be at first glance. However despite this diversity of views, many of the stakeholders involved share similar assumptions about flood risk and its management, reflecting the role of a dominant discourse in setting the boundaries of debate. Place attachment emerges as a key cross cutting theme, of importance to both opponents and proponents of the proposed scheme. Place attachment can act as either a barrier to transformative adaptation or as a motivator for action. While highlighting areas of disagreement between local stakeholders, conflicts such as the Cork dispute can also represent new opportunities to engage wider constituencies with hazards management and to bring new perspectives into the decision-making process. The emergence of place attachment as a cross cutting theme illustrates that using place as a boundary concept around which to centre the decision-making process may allow for the testing of new approaches to hazards management and climate change adaptation . These would incorporate both a wider range of stakeholders including those not directly impacted by hazards, and a broader range of issues, situating hazards management within a wider context