Exogenous factors in collective policy learning: the case of municipal flood risk governance in the Netherlands

Figures & data

Figure 1. The collective learning framework of Heikkila and Gerlak (2013), with two pathways of influence of exogenous factors identified.

Table 1. Categories of exogenous factors potentially influencing collective learning in policymaking settings.

Category	Sub-categories	Examples	Indicative timeframes	References
Material	Biophysical	Natural disasters e.g. floods, heatwaves, earthquakes, storms, droughts	Short (months-to-years)	Folke et al. (2005)
		Unfolding impacts of climate change; Environmental decline e.g. biodiversity loss, landscape degradation	Long (many decades), or Very long (hundreds of years)	Wiering et al. (2017)
		Geography e.g. river gradient, width and depth; landslide susceptibility; Also changes in landscape (human-induced) e.g. river widening, new physical infrastructure	Long or Very long	Wiering et al. (2017)
	Technological	Public infrastructure failure e.g. health, mobility, or digital systems	Medium (years-to-decades)	Marsh and Rhodes (1992)
	Resource-related	Resource extraction/availability driven by global supply chains and investments	Short or Medium	Sabatier (1988)
Socio-economic	Population	Population growth e.g. sub-nationally or nationally	Medium or Long
		Demographic shifts e.g. ageing populations, declining birthrates, increased variation ethnicity	Long	Sabatier (1988)
	Settlements	Urbanization (growth) or urban shrinkage	Medium or Long
	Industrial	Industrial growth or de-industrialization	Medium or Long	Marsh and Rhodes (1992), Sabatier (1988)
	Economic	Economic growth e.g. more job availability, higher purchasing power	Medium	Marsh and Rhodes (1992)
		Financial crises	Short	Williams (2009), Wiering et al. (2017)
		Overall welfare e.g. human development, social security, healthcare system	Long	Sabatier (1988)
Institutional	Policy	Policy set at higher levels e.g. nationally	Medium	Marsh and Rhodes (1992), Stallings (1988), Sabatier (1988)
	Legislative	Laws set at higher levels e.g. nationally	Short, Medium, or Long	Marsh and Rhodes (1992), Sabatier (1988), Wiering et al. (2017)
	Constitutional	Constitutional rules and traditions	Long or Very long	Sabatier (1988)
Discursive	Policy debates	Focus and terms of policy debates	Short or Medium	Sabatier (1988)
	Political norms	Political frames e.g. economic (neoliberalism, economic growth vs. climate change mitigation); environmental (biodiversity degradation vs. agricultural growth)	Medium or Long	Marsh and Rhodes (1992), Sabatier (1988), Wiering et al. (2017)
	Cultural values	Shifts over time e.g. regarding sustainability, climate change, economic growth, poverty	Medium or Long	Sabatier (1988)

Figure 2. A nested view of the collective learning framework (following Figure 1).

Figure 3. Location of case studies within the Netherlands.

Table 2. Summary of collective learning processes and products in flood risk policymaking in Roermond and Venlo.

	Roermond	Venlo
Collective learning processes	Both cases: Pursuing collaboration and coordination, and taking initiative and leadership to overcome barriers and improve the acquisition and translation of information
Examples	Struggle with (translation of) regulations for obligatory compensation for floodplain construction, e.g. for Maasplassen region (interviewee 2)	Struggle with (translation of) nationally imposed flood risk measures (e.g. dikes) (Gemeente Venlo, 2014)
	Initiating discussions with national government about compensation (acquisition and translation) (interviewees 2;3)	Establishing steering committee for Maascorridor program with representatives from all levels of government (acquisition and translation) (interviewee 9)
	Leading local initiative to combine compensation of floodplain projects for increased feasibility (acquisition and translation) (Gemeente Roermond, 2015; interviewee 2)	Leading exploration of alternatives, combining spatial development and flood risk management, for nationally imposed flood risk measures (acquisition and translation) (Gemeente Venlo, 2015, 2016; interviewee 8)
		Diffusion of flood risk governance as integral policy objective through holistic program management (dissemination) (interviewees 8; 10; 11)
Collective learning products	Consideration of flood risk as necessary when contemplating new developments (cognitive)	Consideration of flood risk as one of primary policy objectives besides e.g. nature and tourism development (cognitive)
	Flood risk addressed as requisite policy domain, but separated from general municipal governance (behavioral)	(pursuit of) integrated flood risk governance (behavioral)
Examples	Construction plan for Jazz City in 2011 in which original plan required large amendments after failure to consider flood risk from the start (interviewee 2; city archive Roermond)	River governance programs with flood risk as integrated objective: Maascorridor (1999), Maasboulevard (2004), Maas Venlo (2016) (Gemeente Venlo, 2015, 2016; H2O, 2004; Stadsgewest Venlo c.a., 1999)

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