Mind the gap: identifying governance gaps in cross-sector climate resilience governance: The Dutch region of Salland

The implementation of climate change adaptation measures on a subnational scale coincides with land use planning processes addressing a variety of societal challenges such as the energy transition, economic development and new housing. Implementing these measures comes with a growing necessity for cross-sectoral collaboration. This research explores whether such cross-sectoral interdependencies are reflected in regional actor networks and asserts that if such connections are lacking this can be seen as a governance gap. As case study, we selected the Zwolle region in the Netherlands; an economic growth region where flood risks are increasing due to climate change. To deal with these challenges, the region strives to improve its flood resilience. Based on an extensive document analysis, we identified the actors and issues that are relevant for achieving this ambition. Social Network Analysis is used to investigate the interconnectedness of issues and actors. The results provide insight into the degree to which cross-sectoral issue integration is present. This identifies possible governance gaps, which are a key barrier in cross-sectoral collaboration, thereby hampering climate-resilient growth. The results of the study reveal the degree of cross-sectoral collaboration, thereby identifying governance gaps which give insight in the implementation of regional climate change adaptation measures alongside other policy goals that aim to improve flood resilience. In general results indicate that there are no major differences between issue integration in actors’ work portfolio and issue integration perceived by actors, with a slight overrepresentation of perceived issue integration. The results therefore point out that governance gaps between the issue networks are limitedly present.