Community-based Adaptation of Repeatedly Flooded Communities in the Yom River Basin
Abstract
In recent years, flood risk management has increasingly adopted locally sustainable adaptation measures. However, there remains a major gap in understanding how to enhance the outcomes and integration of sustainable adaptation into broader-scale policies, and into specific community practices. In particular, the insufficient participation of individuals in flood management has been acknowledged as an important issue, but to date is under-investigated. These limitations are critical in the Lower Yom River Basin (YRB) of Thailand, which has experienced multiple flooding situations in recent decades. In response, the Thai government initiated flood detention basins in the Lower YRB following the 2011 Great Flood. These flood detention basins were implemented along with expectations for local people to participate in the new flood management regime. However, the hierarchical, top-down approach to governance raises questions about whether the discourse and reality of local participation are in alignment. This research explores the questions: 1) in what ways do individuals and communities collaborate in the governance of cross-scale flood management?; and 2) how can local communities in the YRB be supported to live well in the future when faced with climate-induced floods? This thesis used Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Problem Structuring Methods (PSMs) in two urban and rural communities in the Lower YRB which have experienced repeated flooding, as well as with stakeholders from national to local levels. PAR and PSMs enabled three participatory learning stages, self-reflective experiences, and comparative case studies to identify ways forward in community-based flood adaptation. Results indicated that community-based adaptation has the potential to achieve positive changes for local communities if it was cognizant of, and adjusted to incorporate, the influence of performative social identities in shaping how local people live with floods. Disadvantaged groups - rural rice farmers, urban elderly, daily income finders, and flood-prone citizens - were reluctant to live with floods due to low capacity or willingness to adapt. This reluctance was expressed differently on the landscape based on their diverse social identities. Under the government-led 'participation-by-invitation' discourse in flood management, in which select citizens are invited to participate in governance under the government's terms, vulnerable citizens have been expected to sacrifice opportunities for sustainable livelihoods to protect more privileged citizens from floods. However, some vulnerable groups have harnessed local policy drafts to prioritise their interests. In response, the government has attempted to revise the policy agendas accordingly, but they are far from meeting actual local demands, particularly in improving community livelihoods via meaningful participation. I argue that under the status quo of non-collaborative policy making and management, more-than-state approaches should be initiated to navigate community-based flood adaptation instead of the existing hierarchical governance. Promising approaches comprise three actions operating across social levels and knowledge scales: 1) allow non-state agencies to facilitate bottom-up policy changes from affected communities; 2) collaborate with international bodies to advance climate-induced flood informatics and green adaptation measures for local communities as a way of counterbalancing power with government authorities; and 3) invest in creating the enabling conditions for transformative adaptation at the river basin scale.