Analysing and evaluating flood risk governance in Belgium: dealing with flood risks in an urbanised and institutionally complex country

This report centralises the findings from research conducted in Belgium to assess Flood Risk Governance arrangements at the national scale (Flemish and Walloon Region) and from three case studies: Antwerp, Geraardsbergen and Lessines. It also includes a chapter on explanations for stability and change in Flood Risk Governance and another on Social Resilience. Further, it presents a SWOT-analysis and recommendations for strengthening flood risk governance in Belgium.

The Belgian flood risk governance arrangement has shown itself to be very dynamic in the period investigated of 1995 - 2015. This report demonstrates that this has resulted in an ambitious policy and discourse concerning flood risk management. On the other hand, flood risk governance in Belgium has several bottlenecks, the primary examples of which include the fragmentation of competences, the lack of enforcement in the field and the lack of flood awareness among the Belgian population. The chief lesson to be learned from an assessment of flood risk governance in Belgium is that the two Belgian regions face very similar challenges. Consequently, they can learn a lot from one another by sharing their best practices.

This report is a deliverable of the EU 7th Framework Project STAR-FLOOD, which focuses on flood risk governance. The project investigates strategies for dealing with flood risks in 18 vulnerable urban regions in six European countries: England in the UK, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. The project assesses flood risk governance arrangements from a combined public administration and legal perspective, with the aim of making European regions more resilient to flood risks.