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Assessing the suitability of economic policy instruments for urban flood risk management

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Driver_Tia.pdf (1.49 MB)

Date

2019-06-14

Authors

Driver, Tia Rebecca

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Waterloo

Abstract

Although modern technology has improved stormwater management practices, municipalities remain susceptible to urban flooding. One common method for addressing flood risk is through the application of economic policy instruments, which facilitate risk reduction by way of incentivising stakeholders to engage in activities that eliminate risk. To date, several studies have analysed costs and benefits of economic policy instruments, but there are still limited insights regarding the selection and evaluation of economic policy instruments by municipal public managers. As a result, this study explored how Canadian municipal public managers assess the suitability of economic instruments for flood risk management. The economic policy instruments examined in this study included corrective taxes, special surcharges, subsidies, compassionate grants, stormwater credits and stormwater charges. Semi-structured interviews were employed and asked participants to evaluate the suitability of the instruments based on seven evaluation criteria. Thematic content analysis was utilised to identify themes among the interviewees’ evaluations and resulted in a total of eighteen individual axial codes, collated under three broader suitability themes (efficiency, legitimacy and resiliency). This study concluded that municipal public managers evaluate the suitability of economic instruments for flood risk management through the use of a hierarchical framework which organises the seven evaluation criteria from most preferred to least preferred. Thus, the criteria are ordered as such; municipal capacity, effectiveness, political viability, fairness, economic efficiency, flexibility and coherence.

Description

Keywords

urban flooding, flood risk management, economic policy instruments

LC Keywords

flood control, risk management, flood damage prevention, urban runoff

Citation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10012/14756

Collections

Theses
Environment, Enterprise and Development