TY - JOUR

T1 - Spatial imaginaries in flood risk management: insights from a managed retreat initiative in upper Bavaria

AU - Walsh, Cormac

AU - Lennon, Mick

AU - Scott, Mark

AU - Tubridy, Fiadh

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the Irish Center for Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) under Science Foundation Ireland Grant 13/RC2092. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Newcastle University.

PY - 2023/10/1

Y1 - 2023/10/1

N2 - Recent decades have witnessed a shift to spatial perspectives in flood risk management. It is recognized that flood protection has substantial implications for land-use plans and requires attention to the functional geographies of river basins, catchments and floodplains. It is against this background that managed retreat is increasingly identified as a viable cost-effective response to flood risk. Yet managed retreat is also a political act, involving the displacement of coastal and riverine communities. In this paper, we examine the spatial imaginaries underlying managed retreat and flood risk management through an in-depth case study of a displaced village on the Danube in Upper Bavaria, Germany. The paper provides insights into the challenges posed by diverging functional, administrative and political spatial imaginaries and how this divergence contributes to perceptions of injustice. We suggest that a shift to a more relational form of communicative planning may help to address this dilemma.

AB - Recent decades have witnessed a shift to spatial perspectives in flood risk management. It is recognized that flood protection has substantial implications for land-use plans and requires attention to the functional geographies of river basins, catchments and floodplains. It is against this background that managed retreat is increasingly identified as a viable cost-effective response to flood risk. Yet managed retreat is also a political act, involving the displacement of coastal and riverine communities. In this paper, we examine the spatial imaginaries underlying managed retreat and flood risk management through an in-depth case study of a displaced village on the Danube in Upper Bavaria, Germany. The paper provides insights into the challenges posed by diverging functional, administrative and political spatial imaginaries and how this divergence contributes to perceptions of injustice. We suggest that a shift to a more relational form of communicative planning may help to address this dilemma.

KW - displacement

KW - flood risk management

KW - managed retreat

KW - spatial imaginaries

KW - spatial justice

KW - Environmental Governance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132703098&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/f491d9f0-18af-3e40-8712-32af6551a441/

U2 - 10.1080/09640568.2022.2082927

DO - 10.1080/09640568.2022.2082927

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85132703098

VL - 66

SP - 2668

EP - 2690

JO - Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

JF - Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

SN - 0964-0568

IS - 13

ER -