Understanding lay people’s flood risk perceptions has become an essential component of flood risk management especially with respect to ascertaining possible responses both to risk situations and to government actions. However, different contextual factors determine how they respond, and little has been done in the African urban context to study flood risk perception trends. Using data from 612 household questionnaires, this paper documents the hazard-related and cognitive factors of flood risk perception (measured using perceived likelihood of flood-induced property damage, as the dependent variable) in 3 neighbourhoods of Kampala, Uganda. Correlation and ordinal regression analysis established a positive influence of flood experience on flood risk perception in 2 of the neighbourhoods. In contrast, it has a negative influence in the third neighbourhood, which also goes for existing mitigation measures. However, in the latter, flood-induced property damage and existing mitigation measures showed a positive influence. Additionally, flood-induced financial costs positively influence risk perception in two of the three neighborhoods. These differences are associated with case characteristics, including the widening of drainage channels and socio-economic characteristics, and partially confirm the findings from previous studies. The contextual trends provide insights to improve the application of the Protection Motivation Theory.@en

The undisputable human influences on the Earth’s system demand an urgent change of ways and transitions in human systems to sustain a healthy society in the future. Addressing the urgent climatic transformations in deltaic areas, this paper is an attempt of the Delta Urbanism research group at TU Delft to set the line for new (integrated) research inquiries by design and investigate fundamental, experimental, and strategic & operational responses to the existing prospects for action as a way to create collaboration between various sectors. These prospects for action are targeted at four critical fronts (climate, urban, governance, cultural) based on trends and challenges that deltaic areas are facing and to which coherent spatial strategies are needed. These fronts together need a research response to enable the making of the delta of the future through the power of interdisciplinary design. This perspective or prospect is established through six lines of inquiry that are elaborated in the paper. The central question is “how can the research field of delta urbanism provide a transformative ‘prospect for action’ to establish strategic pathways toward a resilient Delta future, where assertion and proof are synergized”? The discussion of the six lines of inquiry, which effectively address the four critical fronts, explores how they are poised to deliver fundamental, experimental, and operational outputs for further research and action.@en

Based on the understanding of the built environment as result of competing claims on space that must be resolved via recognition, fair distribution of burdens and benefits of our human association, respect and care for the planet and just procedures to decide on those claims, Spatial Planning and Strategy is a chair in the Department of Urbanism within the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of the Delft University of Technology, committed to helping create sustainability, resilience and spatial justice through the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement and the European New Deal, among other frameworks. This commitment is reflected in activities, events, and courses. We are concerned with knowledge about the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of strategic and urban planning tools – visions, strategies, plans and programmes.@en

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.

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With the trends of increasing flood risk due to climate change and rapid urbanisation in many parts of the world, property level mitigation efforts have become more relevant in flood risk management. However, the flood mitigation behaviour of business owners is an understudied aspect of risk reduction. This article employs the Protection Motivation Theory framework to identify critical factors that determine the flood damage mitigation behaviour of micro, small and medium enterprises in three neighbourhoods of Kampala, Uganda. We conducted a sample survey of micro to medium-sized business owners in two informal areas and one formal area in Kampala. Our analysis established that businesses of all sizes adopted structural measures and that micro-enterprises (0–4 employees) were more likely to implement non-structural measures than small businesses. Financial losses, risk aversion, and perceptions of flood likelihood all showed positive relationships with flood damage mitigation actions. Many businesses indicated that relocation is an inefficient and costly measure, though one that is easily self-implementable. Information-seeking behaviour and receiving flood-related information stimulated businesses to mitigate, though few businesses have regular access to helpful information regarding flood mitigation measures, especially concerning non-structural measures. These insights provide a basis for crafting business resilience-building policy and strategies considering increasing climate change-induced flash-flood risk in Kampala and other similar contexts.

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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.

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Mixed methods surveys using multilingual assistants in areas without clear pre-defined sampling units are often difficult to manage and unpredictable, thereby threatening data quality. More so when such surveys are executed in unfamiliar territories where cultural and language barriers prevent direct communication between the principal researcher and the respondents, and field assistants act as cultural/language brokers. This paper provides a method to enhance data quality in such contexts through a reflection on the research design and data collection experience in our study on flood damage mitigation processes among households and businesses in Kampala. Associated field challenges included different disciplinary and language skills levels of assistants, their multiple positionalities when translating concepts from the inquiry language to the source language and vice-versa, low settlement permeability/accessibility, multiple households per sampling unit, and socio-psychological issues among respondents and research assistants. The available literature lacks comprehensive systematic methods to address the challenges above, using detailed research fieldwork management experiences in which data collection is outsourced from field assistants. Our application of an extended version of the briefing and debriefing technique closes this gap. As a guide to apply this approach, we conceptualize social science research into four inter-related dimensions–paradigm, people, process, and presentation.

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Wetlands have been critical in human life since the earliest civilization in Mesopotamia. The interaction interface between the two has been a point of discussion and confluence of research. Specifically how human actions impact the sustainability of such ecosystems.Using the case of Harare throughthe ‘governmentality’ lence, this study critically analysed governance technologies and their ability to regulate land use in a sustainable manner. Purposive sampling was used to select the organisations and pieces of legislation related to environmental governance. The study noted the existence of fragmented pieces of legislation relating to the environment which include the Regional Town and Country Planning Act, and the Environmental Management Act. Both of these pieces of legislation do not clearly refer to wetlands. The drawback is exacerbated by the lack of a National Wetlands Policy. All this has led to a number of environmentally irrational decisions by the governing authorities resulting in the loss of 55% of the City’s wetlands to development planning and infrastructure development. Residents have different forms of power which include; the law, lobbying, and adopting global rights to protect wetlands. These forms of power give residents differential levels of resistance to wetland conversion efforts. For example less sensitive developments can easily be averted through objections as spelt in the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act, while sensitive development have been resisted through lobbying. Lobbying worked in half of the cases it was applied while adoption of global rights worked for all the cases in which it was applied. The interesting observation is that lobbying was common in the affluent areas while in the low income areas residents seemed to be prone to subjugation. It is recommended therefore that awareness campaigns should be carried out by the Environmental Management Agency to equip residents with knowledge on the value of wetlands and the various forms of power that they can use to protect them against conversion. There is also need for re-alignment and where possible synchronisation of relevant pieces of legislation relating to environmental protection by the parliament through responsible government ministries. In this process effort should also be made to give more power to the lower levels of the governance hierarchy.@en