Alexia Rogers-Wright

Department of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences

University of Hull
Cottingham Road
Hull, HU6 7RX
Tel: +44 (0)1482 465039
Fax: +44 (0)1482 466340
Email: a.f.rogers-wright@2008.hull.ac.uk

2007-8 MSc Environmental Governance, University of Manchester
2004-7 BSc (Hons) Geography, University of Manchester

Rethinking the spaces and institutions for the governance of flood management.

Supervisors

• Professor Graham Haughton
• Professor Tom Coulthard
• Professor Greg Bankoff

Funding: ESRC CASE Studentship with Hull City Council

In the summer of 2007 “extreme levels of rainfall” caused pluvial flooding which affected many areas of the UK (Pitt, 2008). In Hull, over 20 000 people were affected, 6 300 of whom were forced to leave their homes and live in temporary accommodation (Coulthard et al., 2007). Despite this, pluvial flooding is not currently considered to be a contingent hazard and is therefore not planned for in the same way as fluvial or coastal flooding. The floods of the summer 2007 in Hull revealed a certain amount of ambiguity surrounding the responsibility of the institutions involved in flood governance. This study will attempt to map and analyse the complex governance arrangements surrounding flood risk in the north Humber area and critically examine the interaction of government-led and community-led initiatives to reduce flood risk in the area.

Aims

• To examine the reworking of governance arrangements at various scales post-2007 floods.
• To illustrate how planning arrangements for flood events worked out in the three years prior to and three years following the flood events in the north Humber.
• To critically examine the main consequences of the institutional confusions which were made apparent during the summer of 2007, examining both prior arrangements and events during 2007.
  

Papers presented

• Association of American Geographers Annual International Conference 2011 - Geographies of Catastrophe Session
• University of Hull History Postgraduate Symposium 2010 – Flood Management Issues Session
• Planning and Environment Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual Conference 2010 – Sustainable Futures
• Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual Conference 2009 – Crisis and Environmental Governance Session
• Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual Conference 2009 – Emerging research in Human Geography Session
• Economic Geography Research Group Annual Conference 2009 – Postgraduate Session
• University of Hull History Postgraduate Symposium 2009 – Rivers of Blood and Water Session
• University of Hull Geography Seminar Series 2010

Positions held

• Visiting research fellow at the University of Manchester.
• Elected postgraduate secretary for the Planning and Environment Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society.

Posters displayed

• ESRC seminar series 'Roles and relationships between the Voluntary Community Sector, communities and the local state' (Newcastle University, 4^th June 2009) – awarded 1^st Prize
• Vitae Poster Competition (Leeds University, 22^nd April 2009)

Teaching experience

• Undergraduate residential fieldtrip to Barcelona
• Introduction to Human Geography
• Undergraduate day fieldtrips to Whitby, Leeds and Hull
• Geographies of Development
• “Geography at University” taster days for local schools

Links

• ESRC workshop: Sub-Contracting Risk: Neoliberal Policy Agendas and the Changing Nature of Flood Risk Management
• The Pitt Review: Lessons learned from the 2007 floods
• Professor Tom Coulthard’s web page on flooding in Hull  
• Ethnographic research on flooding in Hull at Lancaster University