Defence from Floods and Floodplain Management discusses all aspects of floodplain management related to defence from floods, including specific issues such as the maintenance of flood defences, and reveals many aspects of a more holistic approach to the management of flood risk, expanding the structural/non-structural debate into prevention and cure in the floodplain and its catchment. Recent experience in many countries is recounted by experts from Hungary, Austria, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK and the USA.
In recent years there have been a number of catastrophic floods that have resulted in a tragic loss of life. These natural disasters highlight the need to further understand the occurrence phenomena, to improve forecasting techniques, and to develop procedures and contingency plans to minimise the flood impact. This volume contains contributions from the 3rd International Conference on Floods and Flood Management held in Florence in November 1992. The volume is timely and provides an important overview for engineers, scientists, managers and researchers of the latest developments in technology, analysis and management.
Approaches to avoid loss of life and limit disruption and damage from flooding have changed significantly in recent years. Worldwide, there has been a move from a strategy of flood defence to one of flood risk management. Flood risk management includes flood prevention using hard defences, where appropriate, but also requires that society learns to live with floods and that stakeholders living in flood prone areas develop coping strategies to increase their resilience to flood impacts when these occur. This change in approach represents a paradigm shift which stems from the realisation that continuing to strengthen and extend conventional flood defences is unsustainable economically, environmentally, and in terms of social equity. Flood risk management recognises that a sustainable approach must rest on integrated measures that reduce not only the probability of flooding, but also the consequences. This is essential as increases in the probability of inundation are inevitable in many areas of the world due to climate change, while socio-economic development will lead to spiralling increases in the consequences of flooding unless land use in floodplains is carefully planned. Flood Risk Science and Management provides an extensive and comprehensive synthesis of current research in flood management; providing a multi-disciplinary reference text covering a wide range of flood management topics. Its targeted readership is the international research community (from research students through to senior staff) and flood management professionals, such as engineers, planners, government officials and those with flood management responsibility in the public sector. By using the concept of case study chapters, international coverage is given to the topic, ensuring a world-wide relevance.
One of the effects of global climate change is the increasing variability of extreme flood events and cyclones. Current measures to mitigate flood impacts, particularly in the urban environment, are based on previously-planned flood risk intervals and no longer provide sufficient protection. Being prepared for unexpected changes and extreme flood events asks for a paradigm shift in current strategies to avoid and manage flood disasters. In order to stem the increasing impact of urban floods, a major rethink of current planning and flood management policies and practice is required, taking into account different spatial and temporal scales. This book addresses a broad spectrum of relevant issues in the emerging field of urban flood management. It may act as a stimulus for further research and development in urban flood management while informing and engaging stakeholders in the promotion of integrated and cooperative approaches in water management. An interdisciplinary approach which will be of interest to all those who are active in water, risk and urban management.
These edited proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop detail the ongoing search for better ways of protecting human life, land, property and the environment by improved flood management. Such flood management is difficult enough in river basins controlled by a single authority, and becomes even more challenging when dealing with transboundary floods, which may originate in one country or jurisdiction and propagate downstream to another country, or jurisdiction.
Floods are of increasing public concern world-wide due to increasing damages and unacceptably high numbers of injuries. Previous approaches of flood protection led to limited success especially during recent extreme events. Therefore, an integrated flood risk management is required which takes into consideration both the hydrometeorogical and the societal processes. Moreover, real effects of risk mitigation measures have to be critically assessed. The book draws a comprehensive picture of all these aspects and their interrelations. It furthermore provides a lot of detail on earth observation, flood hazard modelling, climate change, flood forecasting, modelling vulnerability, mitigation measures and the various dimensions of management strategies. In addition to local and regional results of science, engineering and social science investigations on modelling and management, transboundary co-operation of large river catchments are of interest. Based on this, the book is a valuable source of the state of the art in flood risk management but also covers future demands for research and practice in terms of flood issues.
A review of such natural disasters as floods and landslides, highlighting the possibility of safe and correct land planning and management by means of a global approach to territory. Since the events deriving from slope and fluvial dynamics are commonly triggered by the same factor, occur at the same time and are closely related, this book analyses floods and slope stability phenomena as different aspects of the same dynamic system: the drainage basin.
Human settlements have grown near watercourses since ancient times. Water supply, irrigation, navigation, wastewater conveyance and city defense are some of the uses that were responsible for this choice. Even floods played an important role, favoring the soil fertilization. Man-made actions, however, especially in urban watersheds, significantly modify the natural water cycle, increasing the magnitude of floods and their potential damages. Consequently, flood damages are one of the most important issues to be dealt with in the present days. Several different studies show that floods are one of the most important natural hazards, with several losses, both in terms of lives and money. Particularly in urban areas, the amplification of floods may cause important economic losses and lead to critical social risks to the cities and their population, when inundation reaches the built environment. This situation is becoming more frequent each day. Recent history shows that urbanization is an inevitable trend and, today, the most part of the world population lives in cities. It is difficult, however, to adequately manage urban flood problems, because flood risk and flood costs are not easy to quantify. Traditionally, flood risk and flood cost assessments face difficulties due to the subjective nature of these evaluations and to the inexistence of standardized methodologies.This book tries to show different techniques and approaches to help in treating flood problems. Chapters 1 and 2 show simplified mathematical modeling of floods and results of multifunctional landscape flood control measures in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The remaining book chapters present remedial works against debris after floods in Venezuela and Measures for Mitigation of Flood areas in Japan. There are also presented studies related with Flood Risk Assessment and Management in Mediterranean Basins. The final chapter shows an interesting study related to the attitudes of residents in the Tokyo Bay area toward flood hazards.
This book examines recent developments in river (flood) management from the viewpoint of Making Space for the River and the resulting challenges for water governance. Different examples from Europe and the United States of America are discussed that aim to ‘green’ rivers, including increasing river discharge for flood management, enhancing natural and landscape values, promoting local or regional economic development, and urban regeneration. Making Space for the River presents not only opportunities and synergies but also risks as it crosses established institutional boundaries and touches on multiple stakeholder interests, which can easily clash. Making Space for the River helps the reader to understand the policy and governance dynamics that lead to these tensions and pays attention to a variety of attempts to organize effective and legitimate governance approaches. The book helps to realize connections between policy domains, problem frames, and goals of different actors at different levels that contribute to decisive and legitimate action. Making Space for the River has an international comparative character that sheds light upon both the country-specific governance dilemmas which relate to specific state traditions and institutional characteristics of national water management, but also uncovers interesting similarities which provide us with building blocks to formulate more generic lessons about the governance of Making Space for the River in different institutional and social contexts. The authors of this book come from a variety of disciplines including public administration, town and country planning, geography and anthropology, and these different disciplines bring multiple ways of knowing and understanding of Making Space for the River programs. The book combines interdisciplinary scientific analyses of Space for the River projects and programs with practical knowing and lessons-drawing. Making Space for the River is written for both practitioners and scholars and students of environmental policy, spatial planning, land use and water management. Editors: Jeroen Warner, Assistant Professor of Disaster Studies, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Arwin van Buuren, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Jurian Edelenbos, Professor of Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
This book educates and introduce readers to the ways in which we can adapt to the threat of flooding throughout the built and natural environment. It offers advice on how to better understand the nature of flood risk, whilst highlighting the key approaches and principles necessary for developing community and property-level flood resilience. As a comprehensive and practical manual, this book includes richly illustrated diagrams on a variety of concepts and strategies to use when designing for flood resilience. It is vital resource for anyone looking to adapt to the threat of flood risk. Highly practical handbook for architects, students, engineers, urban planners and other built environment professionals Richly illustrated with practical examples and case studies Draws on research with the Cabinet Office, Environment Agency & Local Community as well as input from academic and industry experts, homeowners and residents of communities at risk of flooding.
