relation: https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/3926/
title: Identifying barriers and opportunities for the local implementation of urban multi-layer safety towards flood resilience
creator: Knor, Anton
description: The combination of hydrological hazards linked to the climate crisis and socio-economic developments, such as urbanization, increases the risk of severe flooding events. To address this, a paradigm shift in water management is observable moving from technical command-and-control solutions to protect cities from water towards integrated approaches that combine different strategies, such as multi-layer safety (MLS).  Accordingly, this thesis aims to identify barriers and opportunities for the local implementation of the MLS flood risk approach to increase flood resilience in the urban context of Rotterdam. MLS comprises the integration of measures on multiple layers (protection, spatial adaptation, emergency response, (recovery)) to reduce flood risk. The theoretical framework positions MLS as an operationalization of flood resilience. An implementation theory perspective is applied to examine barriers and opportunities for MLS identified in literature.  The central research question ‘What are the barriers and opportunities for the implementation of urban multi-layer safety to increase flood resilience?’, is explored through the single-case study of Rotterdam via 11 semi-structured, qualitative interviews with experts involved with implementing MLS reflecting all layers of the approach.  The results show an extensive overview of barriers and opportunities that hinder and foster the implementation in the context of Rotterdam in various ways and how they affect the layers of MLS differently. Also, connections to the individual components of flood resilience as a normative goal are revealed. ‘Sectoral fragmentation’ and a ‘techno-institutional lock-in’ are identified as two overarching barriers to which most of the barriers are associated. The opportunities are structured in four categories covering ‘pressures’, ‘MLS in motion’, ‘mutual gains’, and ‘available expertise’.
date: 2022
type: Thesis
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: text
language: en
identifier: https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/3926/1/THESIS_Final.pdf
identifier:   Knor, Anton  (2022) Identifying barriers and opportunities for the local implementation of urban multi-layer safety towards flood resilience.  Master thesis.