Strategic Planning for Long-Term Flood Risk Management: Some Suggestions for Learning How to Make Strategy at Regional and Local Level

Abstract

Often, discussions about improving long-term Flood Risk Management (FRM) refer to spatial planning as one of the most promising policy instruments (non-structural measures), especially after flood disasters like in Dresden in August 2002. However, up to now, evidence is limited that spatial planning is used intensively and systematically for long-term FRM, for instance, to reduce vulnerability in flood-prone areas by controlling developments on floodplains and providing development possibilities in non-hazardous areas (Burby et al., Citation2000). Based on the literature on strategic spatial planning (e.g., Albrechts, Citation2004a; Bryson, Citation2004; Healey, Citation2007) and risk management (e.g., Klinke & Renn, Citation2002), this paper presents normative conclusions from case studies conducted in Dresden and London on how to use strategic planning for improving long-term FRM.