AMBIO

Devolution of responsibilities is transforming how flood risk is managed in many countries. Research assessing the emergence and role of a new element in the governance of flood risk management in England explored the numerous âflood action groupsâ that have developed over the last decade. We identified two broad categories of relationship between the public and authorities. The first displays âcontractualâ characteristics: a level of protection provided by the authority in exchange for taxes or similar support. The second embodies a âcollaborativeâ relationship: public knowledge, social and financial resources are equal and complementary to those of authority, and seeking âcollective securityâ. In general, the former were more successful than the latter, but common lessons were that success in FRM should not be defined purely as the ability to prevent flooding, but as the ability to access a variety of resources across different levels of society at different stages of flood risk management