Learning from Floods: Linking flood experience and flood resilience

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Social Science
• Disaster Risk Reduction

Background:

• Flood experience is thought to enhance flood resilience.
• The exact learning processes and their impact on resilience remain unclear.
• Existing research lacks a comprehensive model for learning from floods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and articulate the Learning from Floods (LFF) model.
• To explain the process of learning from flood experience and its effect on flood resilience.
• To identify factors influencing flood-related knowledge acquisition and application.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Learning from Floods (LFF) model.
• Application of the LFF model to analyze learning processes in two distinct environments.
• Qualitative analysis of factors influencing learning and resilience.

Main Results:

• Flood experience triggers individual and social learning, generating flood knowledge.
• Knowledge acquisition is influenced by learning opportunities, motivation, and prior knowledge.
• Barriers like information access, resources, attitudes, social capital, and policy affect knowledge application.
• Learned lessons impact floodability, recoverability, adaptability, and transformability, thereby affecting resilience.
• Environments with extensive flood control infrastructure may hinder learning for flood mitigation.

Conclusions:

• The LFF model provides a framework for understanding how flood experience translates into resilience.
• Learning-based flood mitigation is crucial for enhancing resilience in the context of climate change.
• Well-protected environments require specific strategies to foster learning and improve flood mitigation efforts.