Evolving justice discourses on landowner compensation in Flemish spatial planning: implications for flood risk prevention

Spatial planning increasingly plays a role in flood risk management, for example through measures that restrict development in flood-prone areas. In densely populated regions like Flanders, this is challenging as land is often privately owned, raising questions about how to fairly compensate landowners when their development rights are curtailed. In this paper, we explore shifting discourses on the fairness of financial compensation for landowners affected by downzoning in Flanders (Belgium). We provide an overview of laws and policies that changed the level of compensation and conduct a longitudinal discourse analysis to explore whose interests and needs were considered in those decisions and how fairness was framed in the process. The results show a shift from utilitarian, community-oriented fairness to a libertarian emphasis on individual rights and freedom. These changing discourses legitimise generous compensation, prioritising landowner interests over broader environmental objectives, potentially hindering effective flood risk prevention.