A Distributed Approach to Flood Risk Management Through Participation: Results from a Literature Review

With the increasing occurrence and strength of disasters, adaptation to flooding in the built environment is articulated into different strategies and measures to manage the risk and increase local adaptation capacity. Nevertheless, the high reliance on spatially centralized and large-scale engineering measures is linked to a top-down decision-making and implementation approach. Instead, participatory methods may reduce conflicts and increase acceptance of measures. Moreover, the engagement of private stakeholders supports the distribution of measures in the built environment, including private assets; this generates a potential to decrease vulnerability to flood, which can be considered in new construction standards and urban regeneration processes. Building on ongoing research on a system approach to distributed flood adaptation, this contribution investigates the state-of-the-art of participation in flood risk management through a literature review. It produces conceptual clusters that result in recommendations for the following research steps.