Managing flood risk in shrinking cities: dilemmas for urban development from the Central European perspective

We explore the mismatches in post-socialist Central Europe between the goals of urban renewal (to address urban shrinkage) and flood risk management (resulting from the EU Floods Directive). Taking as examples three declining urban sites significantly affected by extreme floods since the 1990s, we argue that the failure to adopt a multilevel approach to urban flood risk management arises from the persisting urban ‘development’ paradigm, and is accentuated in practice by weak institutional design and insufficient financial resources to manage urban decline.