The Global Water Partnership defines water governance, as “the range of political, social, economic and administrative systems that are in place to develop and manage water resources, and the delivery of water services, at different levels of society” (Rogers and Hall 2003). Falkenmark and Wang-Erlandsson (2021) distinguish water governance and management as being the overarching social-political processes (governance) and the operational decision-making and coordination (management) . Furthermore, they describe water resilience separately, as being the capacity of the water cycle to support the safeguarding of social-ecological resilience. This paper recognises all these three, in addition to flood governance, flood resilience, and flood risk management, as part of overall water governance. It demonstrates why this multi-dimensional and collaborative outlook can be helpful, whilst recognising the different aspects of the governance. The infrastructure in focus is not just water infrastructure, but all infrastructure, as this has a bearing as to how humans and water interact. The paper is in five-sections, with accompanying introduction and conclusion. Section 1 provides definitions and context defining the term water governance, which is multi-layered. These layers will be separated here and throughout the paper, in order that the assessment of North-East Lincolnshire’s (NELs) water and flood governance can be understood, Section 2 introduces the district, geographically, and statistically, in addition to its infrastructure development. It presents the history and evolution of the towns and villages, the commerce and industry. Understanding the current, and future, practices, and policies in place, and planned to be in place in NEL assists to construct recommendations. Section 3 assesses water governance, flood-risk governance, and infrastructure in NEL, in addition to the policies in place for maintaining safe and clean water, sanitation, and pollution. Being coastal, the sea is included as part of the pollution policies of the Council, which encompass assessing the cleanliness of the streets, the sands, and the sea. As well as water management, flood risk management and flood resilience in NEL are covered. Section 4 investigates a case study of innovative, socioeconomically positive solutions to drainage and flood mitigation, utilising all the Organisation of Economical and Cooperative Development (OECD) and the United Nations (UN) guidance and best practice. Section 5 summarises the water governance, drainage, and flood mitigation with special attention to the future safety of this region. Offering recommendations and appraising the work NEL have already done, and how the systems, and fragmentation in place affect these issues.
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