Agricultural land use and flood risk management: Engaging with stakeholders in North Yorkshire

Recent changes in agricultural and flood defence policies create new opportunities for involving rural land use, in particular agriculture, in flood risk management. This paper presents the results of a case study on land management and flooding in the Laver and Skell catchments in North Yorkshire. The perceptions of local stakeholders were explored through interviews with farmers and discussions among stakeholders that were held, supported by the Floods and Agriculture Risk Matrix (FARM) tool, during a stakeholder workshop. These stakeholder perceptions are reviewed against scientific evidence. Temporary storage of runoff water on farmland was found to have potential to mitigate flooding, but the participating stakeholders thought that this was beyond farmers’ responsibility of good farming practice. During the stakeholder workshop, it was therefore agreed among all participants that targeting funding is needed, as well as stakeholder engagement and demonstration farms, in order to successfully involve farmers in flood risk management.