11 October 2026 | News & Events
When communities face increasing flood risks, who decides whether they should be protected in place or relocated? And whose voices influence those decisions? These questions will be at the center of my upcoming guest lecture at Royal Roads University, Canada, on Wednesday, 21 October 2026.
Titled ‘Protect in Place or Relocate? Rethinking Decision-Making in Urban Flood Adaptation’, the lecture forms part of the university’s Lectures in Disaster and Emergency Management series and will draw on my doctoral research comparing flood risk governance in Hull, United Kingdom, and Calgary, Canada.
Rethinking Flood Adaptation Decisions
As climate change intensifies flood risks, governments and communities face increasingly difficult decisions about how to adapt. Should investments prioritize protecting existing settlements through flood defenses and infrastructure improvements, or should relocation be considered as a longer-term response to growing risks? Although these choices are often presented as technical or economic decisions, my research demonstrates that they are also deeply political and shaped by institutional arrangements, governance priorities, and competing understandings of risk and resilience.
Drawing on comparative research in Hull and Calgary, the lecture will examine how different governance contexts influence the adaptation options available to communities. A central argument is that protecting communities in place is not necessarily the outcome of an equal assessment of adaptation alternatives. Instead, existing governance arrangements can narrow the range of options considered long before decisions about protection or relocation are made.
Putting Justice and Communities at the Center
Beyond institutional decision-making, the lecture will explore the implications of flood adaptation choices for environmental justice. Decisions about whether communities remain in place or relocate can have profound consequences for people’s homes, livelihoods, social relationships, cultural identities, and sense of belonging. The presentation will therefore consider how community experiences, place attachment, cultural memory, housing tenure, and affordability complicate conventional approaches to flood adaptation.
By bringing these perspectives into conversation with institutional approaches to risk management, the lecture will invite participants to reconsider whose knowledge matters, whose interests are prioritized, and who ultimately bears the consequences of adaptation decisions.
Contributing to Wider Conversations on Climate Resilience
The lecture will contribute to ongoing debates about climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and the governance of climate-related displacement. It will also encourage critical reflection on how adaptation policies can move beyond predominantly technical solutions towards approaches that more meaningfully recognize social inequalities, community priorities, and questions of justice. Rather than presenting protection or relocation as universally preferable, the lecture will emphasize the importance of understanding how adaptation choices are framed, negotiated, and governed.
Event Details
Lecture: Protect in Place or Relocate? Rethinking Decision-Making in Urban Flood Adaptation
Speaker: Dr Blessing Mucherera, Visiting Academic, University of Hull
Host: Royal Roads University, Canada
Date: Wednesday, 21 October 2026
Time:
- 12:00 noon PDT – Vancouver
- 1:00 PM MDT – Calgary
- 8:00 PM BST – United Kingdom
- 9:00 PM CAT – Southern Africa
Format: Online
The lecture is open to researchers, students, policymakers, disaster and emergency management practitioners, and anyone interested in climate adaptation, environmental justice, and community resilience.
Register for the lecture through Royal Roads University
Advance registration is encouraged.