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Universal delivery of improved drinking water services in rural Africa and Asia has been an enduring policy challenge for decades. Whilst drinking water coverage has generally improved, only one in five countries below 95% coverage in 2015 is currently on track to achieve basic drinking water services for all by 2030. We identify and evaluate three periods of rural water policy in Africa and Asia between 1980 and 2030 to (i) identify four pillars of rural water policy design, (ii) consider how they have adapted over time, and (iii) propose priorities for progress. We argue for an increase in investments in designing and testing emerging institutional models for rural water services to evaluate the trade‐offs in performance across institutional, financial and operational dimensions. Stronger empirical evidence will allow policy and planning to balance and negotiate short‐term political goals with long‐term sector sustainability for the benefit of the poor.

Coastal floodplains are complex regions that form the interface between human, physical and natural systems. This paper describes the development, application and evaluation of a conceptual foundation for quantitative integrated floodplain risk assessments using the recently-developed SPR systems model. The SPR systems model is a conceptual model that combines the well-established Source–Pathway–Receptor (SPR) approach with the concept of system diagrams. In comparison to the conventional approach, the systems model provides spatially explicit quasi-2D descriptions of the floodplain in terms of constituent elements and possible element linkages. The quasi-2D SPR, as it will henceforth be referred to in this paper, is not the final product of this work, but is an important intermediate stage which has been pursued as part of a wider European flood risk project THESEUS (www.theseusproject.eu). Further research is currently on-going to provide full quantification of the quasi-2D SPR, and to add further refinements such that hydraulic assessments could follow on easily and rapidly from the results of these appraisals. The first part of the paper synthesises current conceptual treatment of coastal floodplains and identifies areas for improvement in describing coastal floodplains as complex systems. The synthesis demonstrates that the conceptual foundation of a ‘typical’ flood risk study often achieves a less comprehensive and integrated description of the floodplain than the quantitative models which it informs. From this synthesis, the quasi-2D SPR is identified as a more robust and informative conceptual foundation for an integrated risk assessment. The quasi-2D SPR has been applied to seven European coastal floodplains as part of the THESEUS project. The second part of the paper discusses in detail the application of the quasi-2D SPR to three contrasting floodplain systems — an estuary, a coastal peninsula and a mixed open coast/estuary site. The quasi-2D SPR provides a consistent approach for achieving comprehensive floodplain descriptions that are individual to each coastal floodplain. These are obtained through a robust, participatory model-building exercise, that facilitates developing a shared understanding of the system. The constructed model is a powerful tool for structuring and integrating existing knowledge across multiple disciplines. Applications of the quasi-2D SPR provide key insights into the characteristics of complex coastal floodplains — insights that will inform the quantification process. Finally, the paper briefly describes the on-going quantitative extension to the quasi-2D SPR. ispartof: Coastal Engineering vol:87 pages:15-31 status: published

The nature of coastal risk management is changing, away from an engineering-dominated approach seeking to defend against the sea, to one where risks are managed using a portfolio of measures usually incorporating an acceptance of a finite standards of protection. Inherent in the modern approach is the use of new techniques and approaches, and the process of innovation is important to their adoption across Europe. This paper is based on the hypothesis that governance issues can constrain that process of innovation or enhance it, and that the focus of these governance issues concerns institutional arrangements, legal capabilities, funding regimes and stakeholder engagement. Over a period of three years, two questionnaire surveys have been undertaken of the ‘Stakeholders’ and the ‘Site Champions’ involved in THESEUS research sites, including in-depth interviews, seeking information on these matters across the wide range of circumstances in these different geographical locations. Our tentative conclusion is that technical issues concerned with risk assessment and risk reduction choices are not central to the process of innovation with regard to the practice of risk management, but that institutional culture, traditions and capabilities are of greater significance. This resonates with the literature on governance and innovation, which stresses the importance of the social context in which governance arrangements can be improved and in which innovation flourishes.

This paper demonstrates the application of a Decision Support System (DSS) developed for decision makers and stakeholders to manage and raise awareness of coastal flood risk. The DSS is a GIS-based framework that predicts flooding consequences and is structured around the Source Pathway Receptor Consequence (SPRC) model. The DSS draws together points of view from engineering, ecology and socio-economics, allowing the comparative assessment of the consequences of a range of management interventions. The utility of the tool is demonstrated through application to an estuary field site - the Teign estuary in UK. Vulnerability maps, generated by the DSS for pre-set climate scenarios can be used to show their comparative efficacy in changing the consequences of flooding from a range of stakeholder viewpoints. Recently constructed “tidal” defences built within the estuary are shown to be highly effective.