Investigating the risky dilemma of regional flood planning: The case of the Wolastoq | Saint John River Basin, Canada

Abstract

Adaptive approaches to flood governance are gaining attention as climate change is expected to alter historic flooding patterns around the world. Collaboration networks are essential to adaptive governance as they create a cohesive system of diverse actors functioning across different jurisdictions and spatial levels. This research investigates the network structure of the regional collaborative governance for flood planning in the Wolastoq | Saint John River Basin, Canada. A social network approach was employed to assess the extent and characteristics of adaptive flood governance in the region, specifically investigating network properties related to collective action dilemmas, organizational type, and geographic scale. The network displayed a diverse composition of organization types, a propensity for bonding structures, homophily among governmental organizations, and prominent brokerage activity of multi-basin actors. The presence of bonding structures in the network reflected the high-risk dilemma presented by flood planning, characterised by the presence of both government and non-governmental actors with diverse authority, resources, and organizational capacity. Transitioning to adaptive governance would benefit from increased connectivity among regions and enhanced brokerage activity amongst governmental organizations.