Implementing integrated flood risk management: Operationalising the role of public values

Climate change and rapid urbanisation increase flood risks, calling for environmental policy practices integrating flood protection and spatial planning. The need to shift towards more integrated flood risk management (FRM) is widely recognised, but it remains challenging in practice. We posit that the role of values in these processes is an important, yet underexplored, governance challenge. As integrated FRM demands collaboration between experts from different domains, who hold distinct values and perspectives, new or different values may need to be identified or prioritised. In this context, this paper addresses the question: How do public values enable or hamper the implementation of integrated FRM? To answer this, we conducted interviews and workshops with flood protection and spatial planning experts involved in an innovation project of the Dutch Flood Protection Programme. Our results show that integrated FRM is hampered by the fact that experts working in the flood protection and spatial planning domains hold different public values. Flood protection is guided by public values such as efficiency and effectiveness, while spatial planning prioritises sustainability and integrality. When reflecting on these public values, experts proposed new values and reconsidered and shifted domain-specific public values to support integrated FRM. This indicates that public value differences are not static but fluid, and that the gap between domains can be bridged when experts engage in collaborative processes, fostering dialogue and reflection on these values. Making public values explicit creates opportunities for better alignment between domains and has the potential to support the implementation of integrated FRM.