The Governance of Nature-Based Approaches to Flood Risk Management in the Lower Severn Catchment (England)

Abstract This chapter reports on a new arena of flood risk governance in the lower river catchment of the Severn, Britain’s long river. As a result of Living Lab (LL) activity directed towards the natural management of fluvial, pluvial and surface-water run-off in the county, a new governance group was established. The ‘Working With Natural Processes’ (WwNP) sub-group reports to the regional, multi-stakeholder body The English Severn and Wye Regional and Coastal Flood Committee (RFCC), which advises on the allocation of state funds for flood protection along two river catchments. The chapter outlines complexities of flood risk management in Gloucestershire, describing locally specific flood policy and protection challenges in the light of a changing climate, plans for urban expansion and in light of defined political and geographical limits that complicate catchment-wide ESS governance. The establishment of the WwNP sub-group formalises a strategic approach to ‘green’ flood risk interventions and supports the networking of flood authorities and land managers. The chapter describes how the LL facilitated the group’s establishment, not least by trying to align different interests, and particularly by helping to connect urban and rural spatial interests in natural processes for reducing flood risk, which are usually separated into rural and urban areas.