The meaning of flood risk information in spatial planning

Spatial planning can be seen as one of the means to prevent and mitigate flood risks. To support the consideration of flood hazards within spatial planning processes, numerous GIS based models and systems have been developed. Since GIS based systems and models increase our insight in the chance and magnitude of flood risks, they increase opportunities to act upon them. Interestingly, what used to be seen as dangers (`acts of god') may now have become seen as risks (`errors of man'). By implication safety consequences are more and more attributed to decisions and can increasingly be seen as the consequences of choices made by decision makers. From this perspective, it becomes interesting to examine how decision makers deal with risk information and especially how decision makers give meaning to this information in their actions related to spatial developments, such as decision related to the choice of building sites or decisions about the necessity of (additional) safety measures. In the paper, this question will be discussed by the analysis of a case in the Netherlands where spatial developments are proposed in a flood prone area. The results have been derived from a policy analysis based on desk research and interviews with governors and representatives from water boards and spatial planning departments at the provincial and municipal level.