Communities and Institutions for Flood ResilienceTurning Tides?

Turning Tides?

Translating histories into strategies: an integrated approach for studying Deltas

Introduction

• WOTRO-Integrated Programme (IP) “Communities and institutions for flood resilience: Enhancing knowledge and capacity to manage flood risk in the Bangladeshi and Dutch Deltas”

• Partners: IWFM-BUET, WARPO, CEGIS, IWM, UST, BWDB, Dhaka AhsaniaMission, KU, KUET

• Wageningen University (Irrigation and Water Engineering group and Disaster Studies group), UNESCO-IHE (Flood Resilience Group), Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), Dura Vermeer, University of California, Berkeley, City of Dordrecht, Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre

Programme Objectives

• Assess and compare the strategies and policies of governments, professionals and communities to reduce flood risk and vulnerability in the Bangladeshi and Dutch Deltas

• Contribute to poverty reduction through the strengthening of institutional and community capacities to manage moderate floods and increase resilience to extreme floods

• Mutual learning and international collaboration

Guiding Questions

• What can be learnt from the similarities and differences between the approaches of the two countries?

• Which (new) tools, methods and approaches will:

– Increase resilience to floods?

– Improve the effectiveness of flood management and disaster preparedness?

– Lead to a better embedding of new knowledge and action with local stakeholders?

PhD Research

• Four PhD projects to analyze the strategies and policies to reduce flood risks and vulnerabilities

• Active exchange and joint methodology development – PhD 1: delta knowledge agendas in NL and BGD – PhD 2: urban flood risk management in BGD and NL– PhD 3: rural flooding and CCA in BGD and NL– PhD 4: new flood and disaster management

approaches: globally and comparison between the two deltas

• Topic 5: mutual learning and collaboration

strengthening of institutional and community capacities

strategies to reduce flood risks and vulnerabilities

(new) tools, methods and approaches

strengthening of institutional and community capacities

strategies to reduce flood risks and vulnerabilities

(new) tools, methods and approaches

strengthening of institutional and community capacities

strengthening of institutional and community capacities

strategies to reduce flood risks and vulnerabilities

strategies to reduce flood risks and vulnerabilities

(new) tools, methods and approaches

(new) tools, methods and approaches

Resilience and Mutual Learning

• How are we defining resilience?– The capacity to bounce back – The strategy to deal with uncertainty as opposed to

optimization (fine for static conditions)– More work needed on how we apply this concept in the

two (SW) deltas, how to operationalize it

• Mutual learning and comparative research between the two (SW) deltas and international collaboration between Bangladesh and the Netherlands

• Promotes arriving at collective understandings between scientists, policy-makers, water users, communities and the public

Stuck in a bathtub

• River flooding turns into pluvial flooding through embankment construction

• Polders and embanked cities are like bathtubs

• Watershed moments, adaptation tipping points / thresholds, turning the tide ?

• An infrastructural solution to today’s problems may well create tomorrow’s problems (technological entrapment, infrastructure legacies)

• A portfolio of “no-regret” responses to managing flood risk, that increase resilience and flexibility in the face of an uncertain future

Today’s Programme

• Morning: PhD presentations and discussion

• Afternoon: Presentations on SW Delta

• Four parallel sessions with PhDs to validate their research plans

• Plenary wrap-up: the Dutch-Bangla Delta connection