This chapter analyzes homeowners’ and residents’ coping appraisal factors related to flood mitigation measures in three neighborhoods of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. Using survey data from 612 households, we correlated flood risk and social vulnerability variables with coping appraisal elements and ran 72 measure-specific ordinal regression coping appraisal models. We conclude that vulnerability, flood severity, flood-related damage, and financial loss negatively influence perceptions of self-efficacy for structural measures. Homeowners and households with more effective measures already implemented have higher perceptions of self-efficacy to implement structural measures compared to tenants and those with less effective measures in place, respectively. Flood information and risk aversion have mixed influences on coping appraisal, perharps because the information sources for many are not reliable. Therefore, good risk communication by the municipality and other development actors can promote positive self-protective interventions.

The importance of governance rearrangements (reassignment of positions, roles, and responsibility among actors in governance processes) and their implications on flood risk management has gained currency in evaluative environmental governance literature. However, much work has concentrated on building and applying frameworks to evaluate impacts of decentralisation, such that frameworks to evaluate impacts of recentralisation are still lacking. This paper uses the case of Bwaise III informal settlement in Kampala, Uganda, to assess the impacts of local government rearrangements on flood mitigation. We adapted a Water Governance Assessment Framework and conducted 22 in-depth interviews with stakeholders, searched documentary sources, and carried out transect walks. We generated qualitative data on stakeholder experiences and perceptions regarding governance quality and flood mitigation prereform and postreform. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis to produce a scoreboard measuring changes in governance dimensions against progress in flood mitigation. In a follow-up survey, 24 structured interviews were conducted to validate the data. Results show that the rearrangements led to time and cost savings, increased revenue, and sped up the implementation of flood management strategies and measures. The findings can be useful to policymakers at the interface of governance and flood management.