Unraveling River Talk: What Communities Say About Floods and River Management

River floods are happening more often and with more force. This means that the people in charge of rivers need to think about new ways to work with communities to plan how to deal with floods. Talking and sharing information between these groups can be tricky. If communities feel left out, mistrust and wrong information can pop up fast. So, people who live near rivers make up stories about why flooding happens in their area. To understand how communities see river management, we talked to 112 people from 3 communities along the Missouri River, USA. We found that people there have three main ideas, or truth regimes, about flooding and river management: 1. They think that water is released from upstream reservoirs more for fun activities like fishing and boating, not to control flooding downstream. 2. They believe that protecting endangered species is now more important than other river values and flood management. 3. They feel that river navigation for business is no longer a priority. For those managing rivers, knowing these local beliefs can help reduce mistrust and frustration with rules, make their project messages clearer, and improve how they share information about river science, management options, and policies.