Homeowner responsibility in flood risk management – The fairness of financial support for property-level flood resilience

Abstract

Governments worldwide are diversifying their flood risk management (FRM) strategies to deal with flood risks. This requires the involvement of multiple policy domains as well as non-state actors – including homeowners. Homeowners can get involved in FRM through property-level flood resilience (PFR) measures. Various initiatives have been launched to financially support homeowners in the implementation of these measures, such as government grants and insurance mechanisms. However, even with financial support, transferring responsibility to homeowners has justice implications: many may lack the economic, social, or cultural capacity to implement PFR, and strict eligibility criteria can exclude certain groups from benefiting. This paper examines the justice implications of financial support for PFR by analysing how different mechanisms align with four conceptualisations of distributive justice: libertarian, utilitarian, Rawlsian, and egalitarian. England and Flanders serve as illustrative cases. England has developed multiple types of financial support and has a longer history of working with PFR, while in Flanders support remains limited and highly localised. By focusing on the justice dimensions of financial support for PFR – rather than a strict comparison of the two contexts – the analysis reveals how the presence of absence of support mechanisms can reinforce or mitigate inequality. These insights are important if PFR is to become mainstreamed and integrated into FRM.