WP4. Citizens' interactions with Blue-Green/Grey infrastructure
Two types of transformative change usefully characterise urban flood resilience.
First: planners, developers, design engineers and system operators become more aware of, and responsive to, citizens’ physical, social and environmental needs and preferences.
Second: citizens’ attitudes and behaviours to flood and water infrastructure change to make the multiple benefits of Blue-Green and Grey (B/G+G) innovation better appreciated and deliverable in practice.
WP4 objectives and tasks
- Co-develop new mechanisms for engaging communities, improving flood awareness and communicating B/G+G benefits at all stages of the flood management cycle.
- Demonstrate how citizens’ priorities and the reality of their lifestyles, communities, and neighbourhoods affect their understanding of and support for B/G+G innovation.
- Communication and learning methods suited to inter-active communication with large numbers of city dwellers will be employed: mobile and social media, crowdsourcing and crowdtesting.
- Research took place in Bristol and Newcastle where our historical, ethnographic studies have already established trust and baseline data in communities.
- Participatory Action Research was applied to support deep exchange of knowledge/beliefs between researchers, practitioners and communities, on sensitive topics such as using stormwater as a resource (WP2).
- Dialogues with individuals (communities), local interest groups and practitioners were set up to exchange observations of asset performance, service provision and community behaviours for B/G+G assets.
- On-line communications were used to study changing attitudes, perceptions and opinions, and test individually-bespoke communication/feedback approaches.
- Our on-line systems were used to canvass and potentially shift citizens’ and professionals’ attitudes and behaviours with respect to B/G+G assets in the case study cities (WP5).
- Identified sustainable attitudes and behaviours, implicit and tacit knowledge/biases, and their relationships with receptivity to innovation among stakeholders; empowering multiple communities.
- Collected citizen data needed for data analytics that embed community perceptions, values and behaviours into innovative and adaptable UFRM designs (WP1), functions (WP2, WP3), planning, and governance.
WP team
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