In the North Sea Region, approx. 16 million people live in coastal lowlands that are in danger of being flooded during storm floods. To maintain present safety standards, despite increasing natural and socio-economic pressures, long-term investments are inevitable. The awareness of the risk of coastal flooding and the perception of coastal defence strongly influence policies and strategies. People that are aware of the risks will accept this. Further, an aware coastal population will react faster and better organised in case of an emergency. In order to maintain an adequate level of public awareness, it is necessary to further develop respective instruments and apply them more intensively, e.g., information tools, flood warning systems. One way to achieve awareness is public participation or rather, active involvement of the people in the planning process. This study will focus on analysis and comparison of public perception of coastal flood defence in the countries participating in the project COMRISK, an INTERREG III B project, financed by the EU: Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and The United Kingdom. Furthermore an investigation and evaluation of methods to improve public perception of the risks of coastal flooding as well as participation in coastal flood defence will be done. |
