From Flood Protection to Flood Risk Management: Insights from the Rhine River in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Abstract

This article introduces an analytical framework to identify and structure paradigm shifts from flood protection towards flood risk management. The framework is divided into three levels of analysis: (i) the governance level, (ii) the institutional level, and (iii) the operational level. Each of these levels plays an important role during the development and operationalization of a paradigm shift. The framework allows scholars and practitioners to organize a large amount of data and information relating to such a shift in a given river basin. To illustrate the potential of the framework, it is applied to the case of the Lower Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The results demonstrate how the different levels interact with each other and which elements constitute a barrier or driver influencing a paradigm shift. While institutions developed at higher management levels support a paradigm shift, the overall dominance of technical flood protection measures at the operational level constitutes a barrier to integrated flood risk management. Furthermore, a lack of joint action and multi-level cooperation constitutes a barrier at the governance level.