Multi-level governance for effective natural flood management: Different roles at different scales

Natural Flood Management implementation is a wicked problem that involves difficult trade-offs, decisions by multiple stakeholders, and actions at multiple spatial scales. Governance of Natural Flood Management implementation is multi-level, with stakeholders connected through vertical, horizontal, and diagonal arrangements. We investigate the extent of multi-level governance of Natural Flood Management in two case studies in Scotland, United Kingdom to understand how decisions are currently made and how decisionmaking processes could be improved. We find that in vertical governance, national-level priorities dominate and constrain Local Authority and community decision-making. In horizontal governance, while there are many mechanisms for collaboration between Local Authorities such as the Local Flood Risk Management Plans, collaboration is in fact limited by funding and workload constraints. In diagonal governance, there are many ways to influence outcomes outside of traditional vertical and horizontal connections, especially through communities, Non-Governmental Organisations, and consulting firms. Improving cooperation and power-sharing across scales can lead to improved Natural Flood Management implementation and stronger resilience to flooding.