ABSTRACT
Awareness of the roles and interactions between the state and its citizens, in navigating changing responsibilities in local flood risk management, is critical for developing community resilience. This chapter investigates how processes and practices of citizen and community participation can contribute to local flood risk management. It asks:
What conceptual framing might contribute to understanding what communities bring to local flood risk management?
What does meaningful participation look like, and what could its role be in flood risk management?
How can the role of positive local community participation be developed within different phases of the flood risk management spiral?
The chapter considers background contexts to community participation in flood risk management, then key concepts, models, methods, and processes within participation. These include framings of human and social capital, and ideas of hydrocitizenship. The chapter explores what meaningful community participation might look like – both in general and in flood risk management. It then contrasts community-based versus community-led risk management in terms of community roles and responsibilities. The discussion progresses to focus on opportunities and challenges – including differential time and resources – for citizen and community participation within community-focused, flood risk management. The territory explored includes diverse forms of community volunteering, mutual aid, and knowledge sharing – delivered in different phases of the disaster risk management spiral and within wider climate change adaptation.
