Consulting or boiling the frogs Confronting citizen action
Consulting or boiling the frogs? Confronting citizen action in Space for the River interventions Jeroen Warner Disaster Studies Group, Dept. of Social Sciences Wageningen University
Swamped by planning? • ´You do not consult the frogs if you are going to drain the marsh´ – French engineer quoted by M Thompson • It turns out that the frogs are not always necessarily all against the draining of the marsh. . But have different views of what is good for the future of the marsh: of what makes ‘spatial quality’ and economic development
Greening of flood management • 1980 s Rise of environmentalism of river engineering • Green river banks, detention basis and bypasses instead of trapezoidal channels • Making Space for the River: multifunctional planning – natural values – safety – development So why don’t people like it? • ‘Development’ of ‘neglected (rural) areas’: wild nature, beautification, environmental education, economic development; but local people say they prefer the cultural landscape and seek to protect livelihoods
Netherlands: Welcome to the Ooij polder…
Dike raising Deepening, widening the river Retention, river restoration ‘Calamity polders’? 12/5/2020
Citizen action`against controlled flooding • Comprehensive web site • Exploiting right-to-know legislation after RIZA ‘leak’ • Effective political lobby and media campaign • Alliance between professionals, local business (Rabo bank) and farmers • Alliances with local government (in NL and D)
Politics of knowledge Supported from inside government institutions Co-opting experts even from among original proponents undermining – climate scenario - cost benefit analysis - technical performance • Not local knowledge but rather cooptation of ‘professional’ knowledge
Joint Planning in France • Widening river in Middle Loire, restoring natural beauty, cyclical removal of removal vegetation • Participatory process with authorities and citizen group Levées = Danger – ‘River is not safe enough after the measures’ • Strategy - Undermine hydrological model, participate in consultation exercise
Joint Planning in Netherlands • Veessen (NL): Farmers join all of the ‘joint planning’ process but at crucial moment threaten to pull out claiming livelihoods endangered • Fear of being co-opted or plain powerplay? => You can seek to include cultural diversity but you cannot avoid power politics!
Joint Planning Approach • Flood risk as opportunity rather than danger • Public engagement as opportunity rather than danger • • • Joint inventory of problem situation Joint learning Joint exploration of alternatives Joint design Joint implementation
Common characteristics • Highly pragmatic strategy, playing ´hierarchist´ or ´individualist´ rather than ´egalitarian´ game • Call on local identity • Elderly, well educated leader with plenty of time • Knowledge strategy undermining assumptions • Ignored at a peril or coopted in consultatyive platforms
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