Groundwater Rising

Resilience & Community - New Research

Episode Summary

Claude Nsobya shares his PhD research into the relationship between resilience and community involvement in Flood Risk Management

Episode Notes

Claude Nsobya undertook groundbreaking research into the links between community and resilience... with the added dimension of being able to compare data from two countries - Uganda and the UK.

Claude was inspired to pursue his research by family experiences of drought in rural communities in Uganda and has continued his academic journey in the UK, culminating in his PhD research, which he talks about in detail in the episode. There are fascinating insights here for both groundwater flooding and flood management in general, including:

• Why existing context in communities (like existing resilience) is vital to understand
• Lessons learnt from comparing Uganda and the UK
• How community engagement from outside agencies (like government projects) need to be carefully thought through
• How variety in local geography (physical and human) affects both community and resilience hugely
• Where Claude thinks policy - particularly in the UK - could be improved
• Why groundwater flooding presents particular resilience and community challenges
• How simple achievable and low-cost actions can make a huge difference in community resilience