Spatial imaginaries in flood risk management: insights from a managed retreat initiative in upper Bavaria

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed a shift to spatial perspectives in flood risk management. It is recognized that flood protection has substantial implications for land-use plans and requires attention to the functional geographies of river basins, catchments and floodplains. It is against this background that managed retreat is increasingly identified as a viable cost-effective response to flood risk. Yet managed retreat is also a political act, involving the displacement of coastal and riverine communities. In this paper, we examine the spatial imaginaries underlying managed retreat and flood risk management through an in-depth case study of a displaced village on the Danube in Upper Bavaria, Germany. The paper provides insights into the challenges posed by diverging functional, administrative and political spatial imaginaries and how this divergence contributes to perceptions of injustice. We suggest that a shift to a more relational form of communicative planning may help to address this dilemma.

Keywords:

• flood risk management
• spatial justice
• spatial imaginaries
• managed retreat
• displacement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A coalition between the Christian Social Democrats (CSU) and Free Voters (Freie Wähler). The latter party, which seeks to protect the decision-making autonomy of muncipalities from the influence of higher levels of government, is particularly strong in rural areas of Bavaria.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Irish Center for Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) under Science Foundation Ireland Grant 13/RC2092.