Case studies

Since research on FRM strategies and especially on non-structural measures is still in an early stage, conceptual work to develop a framework on the context conditions and a methodology play an important role. Nevertheless, empirical work should supply real cases for testing draft concepts. For this reason 7 case studies have been chosen within the countries funding the FLOOD-ERA project (Germany, United Kingdom, Scotland, Austria). They deal with catchments or reaches of the following rivers:

• Lower Thames River (England)
• ................................(Scotland)
• Raab River (Austria)
• Vereinigte Mulde River (Germany)
• Elbe River (Germany)
  
• Mangfall River (Germany)

Due to the consideration of external context factors these cases partly require a multi-level approach. This means that in addition to the project and programme level national and regional context conditions should be included.

The case-study approach will not lead to representative results. Their purpose within FLOOD-ERA is to provide site-specific findings to support the context analysis on the one hand and to test selected components of the evaluation methodology on the other hand. A further clarification of these two different purposes will be covered by the respective papers and needs adoption by respective researchers.

Empirical work will be based on various methods. These are predominately data collection, document analyses, hydraulic modelling and interviews with decision makers. The latter focus several context factors and therefore should be well prepared to gather the required information most precisely and within one round. Moreover, selection of decision makers should be adjusted with the conceptual work.