Urban flood resilience, a multi-level institutional analysis of planning practices in the Metropolitan City of Naples

Abstract

Due to increasing flood risks, urban planners and water managers are called to enhance urban flood resilience. The implementation of resilience measures requires coordination across levels of government. This study aims to unravel the complexity of implementing spatial strategies to enhance urban flood resilience in the Metropolitan City of Naples. The research is informed by the politicized Institutional Analysis and Development framework, which relates contextual variables, discourses, and institutions (formal\informal rules-in-use) to policy outcomes. This framework is used to explain the outcomes of decision-making in multiple nested action arenas on urban flood risk management policies. It is shown that closed decision-making processes that do not involve lower levels of government, limited monitoring and enforcement, and illegal practices lead to poor coordination across levels of government. This lack of coordination explains why floodplain occupancy continues, thus hampering the shift towards a risk-based approach in flood risk management.