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Purpose – This paper explores perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of green roofs for commercial real estate building owners/occupiers in a UK city, and considers how these might affect the chances of their adoption. Design/methodology/approach – Two sets of semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively-selected respondents, ten with and twenty-five without green roofs, to compare and contrast differing perspectives. A grounded theory approach was taken to data analysis, allowing themes to emerge directly from the data. Findings – Low awareness and understanding were observed amongst those without green roofs, which positively affected perceived costs whilst negatively affecting perceived benefits. Green roof owners gave weight to wider societal and ecosystem services benefits, whilst those without focussed much more upon building-level benefits and costs. Research limitations/implications – Because of the restricted sample-size, the findings in themselves are not generalizable; rather, themes are drawn from the research for reflection. Practical implications – Findings point to steps that might be required of regional and national government to increase green roof uptake. This could involve initiating conversations to raise awareness, shift discourse and perceived norms and best practice; offering incentives, education and training, and presenting high-profile exemplar projects of green roofing to begin to mainstream the technology and get it onto the radar of building-owners. Originality/value – Bringing together social research around cohorts with and without green roofs, the study throws into sharp relief discussions around costs and benefits, and points towards potentially more productive directions for action to encourage consideration and take-up of green roofs by building-owners.

A critical element of current flood management is the importance of engaging key policy actors when policy decisions are to be made. However, there is still only limited understanding of how narratives of flood management actors may influence flood management policies, even though there is a suggestion that actors can strategically use their narratives to influence policy directions. In a developing country like Nigeria, there are still questions around lessons that can be learnt from understanding the narratives of policy actors, to unravel the complex nature of strategies and policy directions in managing urban floods. To help fill these gaps, this paper uses quantitative content analysis to explore the frame of five policy actor groups (government, local communities, business, multilateral organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)) as expressed in local and national newspapers between 2012 and 2016 to understand their narratives of causes and strategies to solve the problem of urban flooding in Nigeria. The narratives of government, local communities and businesses align with the premise that flooding can and should be prevented whilst that of multilateral and business actors champion adaptation strategies on the basis that flooding is inevitable and hence more energy should be directed at 'living with water'—emergency response, damage reduction and the aftermath. The study also identified areas of potential consensus and conflict between direct actors such as government and local communities on the one hand and funders on the other. Better discussion among actors aiding understanding of contemporary thinking and local realities will aid policy-making and policy implementation in the Nigerian context. An important step will be in the collaborative design of an urgently needed 'Nigerian policy on flooding' which currently does not exist.

There is a recognised need for a fundamental change in how the UK manages urban water and flood risk in response to increasingly frequent rainfall events coupled with planned urban expansion. Approaches centred on 'living with and making space for water' are increasingly adopted internationally. Nonetheless, widespread implementation of Blue-Green infrastructure (BGI) is currently hampered by barriers that impede uptake and innovation. We investigate the barriers to implementation of BGI in Newcastle, UK, through a series of semi-structured interviews with professional stakeholders. We identify and categorise 17 types of barrier and identify targeted strategies to overcome the dominant barriers. We recommend promotion of BGI's capacity to meet the objectives of multiple organisations and Local Authority departments, in addition to managing urban water. We conclude that strong business cases, supported by monetised evidence of benefits, and collaborative, inter-agency working could advance implementation of BGI within the current flood risk management legislation.

Provision of data and information for disaster risk reduction is increasingly important to enable resilience. However the focus of provision in many African countries is limited to national scale risk assessment and meteorological data. The research aimed to consider the perspectives on availability and access to information of different local urban actors that require reliable and specific information to take informed decisions. The research used workshop discussion and questionnaires to collect views from stakeholders in flood risk management in Nigerian cities about their current access to information and their requirements. The results confirmed that stakeholders and communities agree in recognising the importance of climate information. Findings identified issues surrounding communication between agencies, government and technical experts. The role of the media and business in filling the vacuum left by state provision of information was further highlighted demonstrating the potential for Private Public Partnerships in supporting adaptation and response to flooding. However significant differences in access between sub-groups were also revealed such that some marginalised groups may be excluded from information. It follows that climate services, data and information provision need to be collaboratively designed in order to be more inclusive, to meet user requirements and to build community capacity.

One of the issues highlighted in the Pitt Review of the summer 2007 floods was the time taken for flooded properties to be reoccupied due to the delay in drying and restoring them to their pre-flood condition. The problem was ascribed partly to the lack of definitive guidance on drying methods, and there was a recommendation for Government and other relevant organisations to investigate any improvements that could be made in the drying of flooded buildings. DCLG commissioned a project to review existing guidance and drying technologies, and to obtain the views from a stakeholder workshop. The study would seem to indicate that any perceived delay in the drying process per se does not on its own explain the long restoration times that have been experienced over the past decade. However, availability of equipment and experienced contractors during major flooding events is acknowledged to be an issue. There is also an institutional expectation that the restoration process will take many months. Feedback from the stakeholder workshop indicated that a lack of clarity in the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved in the restoration process can lead to confusion on the part of the householder regarding the series of restoration processes involved, of which drying is just one element. There would seem to be benefit in producing new guidance, making best use of that already available, but providing a clearer focus for linking different drying methods to the type of property and flood damage. Improvements can also be made in the way that such guidance is disseminated, particularly to assist homeowners in understanding the restoration process.