Sustainable Flood Risk Management: Challenges and Resilience

Dear Colleagues,

Flood risk management is a critical aspect of urban planning and environmental sustainability, especially in the face of the increasing frequency and intensity of climate change impacts and urbanisation (Carter et al. 2015). However, these events are not purely natural phenomena; rather, they are shaped by social constructs and are unevenly distributed across various interconnected social, demographic, and economic factors (Cutter et al. 2000).

Contemporary approaches to flood risk management emphasise a move away from large-scale structural defences towards learning to "live with water" and maximizing "resilience". Resilience is a malleable term, subject to interpretation, where the perceived success of resilient technologies, both hard and soft, is highly contingent on a range of factors (Connelly et al. 2020). For example, establishing community flood resilience without state support could be perceived as "a substitute for responsive and accountable governance" (Davoudi et al. 2013; Kaika 2017). Consequently, those who are already vulnerable may become less resilient due to the introduction of new measures that purport to increase their resilience.

Holistic and integrated approaches should be at the forefront in flood risk planning and management, supporting community resilience and discouraging individualistic approaches. We should account for nuanced contexts, avoiding treating populations as uniform groups and overlooking the complex realities faced by those at risk (O’Hare & White, 2018; O’Hare 2025). Moreover, we need to consider how climate-adaptive practices have synergies or trade-offs with energy reduction measures through mitigation (Liyanage et al. 2024), especially since natural flood management measures themselves are infrastructure at risk from climate change (Connelly et al. 2023).

This Special Issue seeks reviews and articles that examine sustainable flood risk and resilience in theory and practice, covering technical, environmental, and socio-economic aspects. We welcome submissions from scholars and practitioners who are working on flood risk management and practice in a way that critically engages with the concepts of resilience, sustainability, and justice. We hope to showcase both critical thinking as well as critical practice, and particularly welcome submissions that consider flood risk management and practice in diverse contexts. 

Contributions to this special Issue may include (but will not be limited to) the following topics:

• Equity and justice issues, especially marginalised and vulnerable populations at risk of flooding.
• Synergies and trade-offs between flood resilience and energy efficiency reduction.
• Community engagement, capacity building, and learning for sustainable flood risk planning.
• Infrastructural resilience beyond structural measures, including natural flood management strategies.
• Integrated water management, as a principle, and broader policy integration
• Innovative funding and resourcing strategies for community-based flood risk management and planning.
• Developments in flood risk data and technology to assist community resilience building, including risk education and interpretation.

References

1. Carter, J.G., Cavan, G., Connelly, A., Guy, S., Handley, J. and Kazmierczak, A., 2015. Climate change and the city: Building capacity for urban adaptation. Progress in planning, 95, pp.1-66.
2. Connelly, A., Snow, A., Carter, J., Wendler, J., Lauwerijssen, R., Glentworth, J., Barker, A., Handley, J., Haughton, G. and Rothwell, J., 2023. What approaches exist to evaluate the effectiveness of UK-relevant natural flood management measures? A systematic map. Environmental evidence, 12(1), p.12.
3. Connelly, A., O’Hare, P., White, I., 2020. “The best flood I ever had”: Contingent resilience and the (relative) success of adaptive technologies. Cities 106, 102842. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102842
4. Cutter, S.L., Mitchell, J.T., Scott, M.S., 2000. Revealing the Vulnerability of People and Places: A Case Study of Georgetown County, South Carolina. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90, 713–737. https://doi.org/10.1111/0004-5608.00219
5. Davoudi, S., Brooks, E., Mehmood, A., 2013. Evolutionary Resilience and Strategies for Climate Adaptation. Planning Practice and Research 28, 307–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2013.787695
6. Kaika, M., 2017. ‘Don’t call me resilient again!’ : the New Urban Agenda as immunology … or … what happens when communities refuse to be vaccinated with ‘smart cities’ and indicators. Environment and Urbanization 29, 89–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247816684763
7. Liyanage, D.R., 2024. Climate adaptation of existing buildings: A critical review on planning energy retrofit strategies for future climate. RSER 199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2024.114476
8. O’Hare, P. and White, I., 2018. Beyond ‘just’ flood risk management: the potential for—and limits to—alleviating flood disadvantage. Regional Environmental Change, 18, pp.385-396.
9. O’Hare, P., 2025. Not ‘just’ climate adaptation—towards progressive urban resilience. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), pp.1-7.

Dr. Angela Connelly
Dr. Paul O'Hare
Prof. Dr. Yamuna Kaluarachchi
Guest Editors

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• community resilience
• integrated flood risk management
• climate adaptation
• natural flood management measures