Beyond reactive approaches: Building resilience in flood risk management in Ghana

Abstract

In Ghana, flooding is a major problem in metropolitan areas as well as rural regions, which calls for sustainable and resilient flood risk management. This requires navigating a complex web of pressures caused by climate extremes, urbanization, and land use planning. Currently, reactive approaches and socio-cultural and -political factors hinder sustainable flood risk management, making it necessary to look beyond the human-flood system. Participatory and collaborative research, such as the one employed in this study, enables a broader perspective on flood prevention and social dynamics. By employing participatory mapping, collaborative scenario development workshops, and focus group discussions, this study identifies adaptation measures that foster transformative and holistic thinking. The collaborative approach allows for discovering the risk of maladaptation, sensitizing decision-makers for place- and group-sensitivities, and developing more interlinked measures and institutional arrangements. The study shows that policies and adaptation measures intended to reduce flood risk and vulnerability may have different effects on different groups of actors, their environment, and their agency, potentially fostering shifting of vulnerabilities, rebounding vulnerabilities and/or eroding sustainable development. Through the collaborative process, stakeholders shift their thinking from project-focused to more transformative measures. Finally, the study emphasizes the necessity to go beyond the water sector and the environmental issue itself in order to create flood resilience and avoid maladaptation.