Towards evaluation criteria in participatory flood risk management

Flood risk consists of complex and dynamic problems, whose management calls for innovative ways of engaging with a wide range of local stakeholders, many of whom lack the technical expertise to engage with traditional flood risk management practices. Participatory approaches offer potential for involving these stakeholders in decision‐making, yet limited advice is available to users in choosing which techniques to employ and what they might expect them to deliver. Assessing the effectiveness of participatory approaches in local flood risk management is a critical step towards better understanding how community resilience is built. This article presents a framework for evaluating participatory approaches to flood risk management that covers four evaluation elements (context, process, substantive, and social outcomes). Practical success criteria are provided for evaluation, with references indicating where further advice and guidance can be sought. Criteria are tailored to the requirements of flood risk management, and aim to be sufficiently flexible for the framework to be easily transferable.