The development of flood risk management in the United States.

• This paper describes policy developments on flood risk management in the United States from the 1940s up to the period after hurricane Katrina (2005–2014). • It shows that flood risk management relies on a value system with underlying responsibility structures and knowledge requirements, that significantly differ from centralized welfare state approaches to flood governance. • The paper calls for taking this value system, responsibility structures and information requirements into account in the transfer of flood risk management to welfare state contexts. Delta regions have always been prone to flooding disasters. To provide protection, welfare state governments have built floodwalls and levees to keep people safe. However, the feasibility of this approach is now being questioned. Can these infrastructural measures accommodate changing floods risks? In many delta countries, governments are embracing "flood risk management" (FRM) as an alternative approach. In FRM, the focus lies on reducing human vulnerabilities to flood risks instead of preventing floods to occur. Based on a case study of the development of FRM in the United States – the country where the approach originated – this paper demonstrates that FRM relies on a value system with underlying divisions of responsibilities, costs and information requirements that significantly differs from traditional welfare state approaches to flood governance. It argues that these systemic features need to be taken into account in the transfer of FRM to welfare state contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]