Study title

The 2013/14 Winter Floods and Policy Change project used qualitative and quantitate methods, namely semi-structured interviews with members of the public and a telephone survey. Both methods investigated perceptions of the causes and solutions to the 2013/14 winter floods and flood risk in the UK more widely. The project investigated public attitudes surrounding the different roles and responsibilities of institutions involved in flood risk management, and how effective local, regional and national policies to tackle flood risk are perceived. Topics also included the health and well-being impacts of the floods and the role of resilience (individual and community) in mitigating the impacts of flooding.This project explores the importance of the early periods following major crises for determining longer-term responses to national policy issues. It does so in order to understand the possibilities at such times for embedding robust, long-term responses to relevant social problems. The research focuses on the major floods which hit the UK during the winter of 2013/14, taking the Somerset Levels and Moors as a case study for examining governance processes and their outcomes in the aftermath of crises. The prolonged nature of these recent floods within Somerset has brought high levels of political, media and wider public attention. There is evidence of conflicting positions and viewpoints on the causes of the floods and the most socially, environmentally and economically appropriate response measures across various stakeholders and flood affected publics. The research will examine this dynamic and evolving context of solution and problem framing in order to build understanding of the immediate aftermath of floods as a key period in which policy change happens and particular solutions emerge. The primary objective will be to show how this initial period of response impacts on the kinds of policy solutions that are put forward and subsequently delivered over the longer...