Contemporary flood management increasingly demands adaptive frameworks capable of responding to accelerating environmental and social change. This paper examines evolving global and local discourses surrounding natural flood management (NFM), employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates content and sentiment analysis with empirical community insights. A global literature review analysed via Leximancer identified core, emerging, and novel conceptual clusters. Sentiment towards NFM varied across regions, yet was predominantly positive to neutral, with the majority of discourse originating from established NFM “hot spots” (e.g., UK, EU). Findings indicate a discernible shift in the literature toward “hybrid” paradigms that integrate engineered interventions and nature-based measures.
To contextualise this global narrative and to ground-truth scholarly discourse, community surveys were undertaken in coastal catchments across New South Wales (NSW). Results demonstrated generally positive sentiment towards NFM, moderated by prior flood experience and the degree of community participation in catchment management. This analysis reveals that both knowledge production and public sentiment towards NFM are inherently place-dependent, shaped by local risk perceptions and participatory dynamics. The study underscores the significance of qualifying academic knowledge bases with community, “on-the-ground" contexts to foster adaptive and socially resilient approaches to flood management: an essential strategy for living and evolving with changes in NSW.