Understanding the development of flood management in the middle Yangtze River

This study aims to investigate whether, to what extent and how a transition toward integrated flood management has taken place in the Dongting Lake area at the middle Yangtze. Accordingly, we conducted a longitudinal research of its flood management (1949–2009). We developed an analytical framework linking regime components to two societal learning types (double and triple-loop learning) that are key to a regime transition. Our study shows that the transition toward integrated flood management has already started, but the whole regime transformation will still take time to complete, due to, for example, the not-yet-ready decision-making processes that shape the structure changes as well as the incompatibilities between what is on paper and real implementation. To understand how the regime transition took place, we investigated where and how triple-loop learning was initiated as well as how so-called “informal learning processes” has contributed to the transition of Dongting flood management.

► This study analyses the development of the flood management regime in the middle Yangtze (1949–2009).
► A framework is developed to analyze the transition of a natural resource management regime.
► The transition toward a regime of integrated flood management has started in the middle Yangtze.
► A complete regime transformation will still take considerable time.