Soil erosion, muddy floods and the need for institutional memory

Abstract

The flooding of property by runoff from agricultural fields is an increasing problem in Europe. In two areas, southern England and central Belgium, the frequency of cases is high and relatively good databases exist. We examine the role of institutional memory in the success and failure to deal with muddy flooding. There appear to be four reasons for memory failure: inadequate transfer of information to the relevant people; lack of a legislative framework, particularly in the UK; a shortage of trained personnel; and institutional difficulties in dealing with an interdisciplinary problem. A successful institutional framework requires national or regional‐level legislation and funding; support for expert groups at the local level; availability of information on successful projects; a system of information dissemination to stakeholders; and active implementation of legislation by regulatory bodies. We suggest that a successful project involving cooperation between municipalities in the Melsterbeek catchment, Flanders, offers a model for action in other areas. Existing projects, such as the Catchment Sensitive Farming scheme in the UK, could learn from this success in Flanders.