Data for: Policy integration: Do laws or actors integrate issues in Swiss flood risk management?

Data and R scripts needed to replicate the analysis of law-driven versus actor-driven integration of issues in Swiss flood risk management, described in the study "Policy integration: Do laws or actors integrate issues in Swiss flood risk management?".

Existing research emphasizes interdependencies between social and ecological systems in climate change adaptation. Ecological systems are often complex and span several policy issues that are not integrated in the social system. In order to increase the fit between social and ecological systems, understanding factors that promote the integration of interdependent issues is crucial. We analyze two bases for issue integration: a) political actors connecting issues and, b) the legal framework cross-referencing issues. We propose a network method for systematic comparisons of issue integration based on actors or laws. For the case of Swiss flood risk management, we find that actor- and law-based issue integration co-vary and might be self-reinforcing. We further find that issue integration mostly rests on laws, although cases exist where actors are the main basis of integration. Results promote our understanding of potential bases for the integration of policy issues, thereby contributing knowledge about adaptive governance capacities in social-ecological systems that buffer the effects of climate change.