Belgian flood risk governance: explaining the dynamics within a fragmented governance arrangement

Despite some inertia, flood risk governance in Belgium has been fairly dynamic between 1995 and 2015. In this paper, change and stability during this period are described and explained in the four dimensions of the Policy Arrangement Approach: actors, discourses, rules, and resources. The analysis is based on 72 semi-structured stakeholder interviews and legal document analysis. Belgian flood risk governance is characterised by a high level of fragmentation. Our analysis found that this can form a barrier to change, but at the same time it creates multiple entry points for policy innovation and thereby increases the dynamics within the governance arrangement.