Channels for Change: a Discursive Institutionalist Analysis of Flood Risk Management

Climate change is posing considerable challenges to water management, increasing flood risks around the world. Even though adaptation to climate change is closely linked to policy change, the policy process of adaptation has not been thoroughly investigated as it is a relatively new policy agenda. This paper attempts to explore the mechanism of policy change by looking into the case of flood risk management. South Korea and Germany are interesting cases to compare because their approaches to flood protection have shown a substantial difference. South Korea has implemented the Four Rivers Project, while Germany has set up the National Flood Protection Program in the early 2010s. Although both countries have similar economic and geographical conditions, the Four Rivers Project included technical-oriented flood defense measures (dams and dredging). In contrast, Germany shifted its emphasis from technical measures to nature-based solutions (retention area restoration and dyke relocation). This paper explores the flood protection policies of the two countries. Pelling’s (2011) typology of adaptation (resistance, transition, and transformation) was used as the analytical framework. This typology is valuable for adaptation policy analysis because it focuses on the ‘process’ of change, which is at the core of the definition of adaptation. This paper uses the typology with a particular focus on the discursive and institutional aspects of the flood protection policies. 47 semi-structured interviews, as well as newspaper articles from 1950 to 2019, were qualitatively analyzed. After comparing the two cases, this paper argues that South Korea’s flood risk policy can be classified as resistant adaptation and Germany’s as transitional adaptation. Notably, discourse-institution interrelationship plays a crucial role in resulting in different policy reactions to flood risks. Shocking events and scientific advancement can help alternative discourse to appear, but it is not enough. The policy change in Germany could be facilitated by the multiple channels of communication within the multi-level governance system from the EU to municipals because it allows diverse discourses flow into the decision-making process. Although the German flood risk management is criticized for the limited implementation of the policy, the findings of this study have implications for the understanding of policy transformation drivers. Reference Pelling, Mark (2011): Adaptation to climate change. From resilience to transformation. London: Routledge.