Floods cause distress and damage wherever and whenever they happen. Flooding from rivers, estuaries and the sea threatens many millions of people worldwide and economic and insurance losses from flooding have increased significantly since 1990. Across the European Union, flood management policy is changing in response to the EU Directive on the ass
Flood risk management policy across the European Union is changing, partly in response to the EU Floods Directive and partly because of new scientific approaches and research findings. It involves a move towards comprehensive flood risk management, which requires bringing the following fields/domains closer together: the natural sciences, social sc
This valuable edition brings together 25 peer reviewed articles on technical, socio-economic, environmental and policy aspects of flood risk management. Some emerging technologies are presented and several future challenges are identified. Thus the book forms an excellent reference for the engineers, scientists, planners, policy-makers, researchers, insurance industry and all the practitioners involved in flood risk management.
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.
Our changing climate and more extreme weather events have dramatically increased the number and severity of floods across the world. Demonstrating the diversity of global flood risk management (FRM), this volume covers a range of topics including planning and policy, risk governance and communication, forecasting and warning, and economics. Through short case studies, the range of international examples from North America, Europe, Asia and Africa provide analysis of FRM efforts, processes and issues from human, governance and policy implementation perspectives. Written by an international set of authors, this collection of chapters and case studies will allow the reader to see how floods and flood risk management is experienced in different regions of the world. The way in which institutions manage flood risk is discussed, introducing the notions of realities and social constructions when it comes to risk management. The book will be of great interest to students and professionals of flood, coastal, river and natural hazard management, as well as risk analysis and insurance, demonstrating multiple academic frameworks of analysis and their utility and drawbacks when applied to real-life FRM contexts.
This book details the impact of flooding on our environment, and the ways in which communities, and those that work with them, can act to manage the associated risks. Flooding is an increasingly significant environmental hazard which inflicts major costs to the economies and livelihoods of developed countries. This book explores how local communities can identify, manage, and adapt to the ever-increasing damage flooding causes. Focusing on the future role of local communities, the benefits and challenges of their involvement, and the potential areas of transformation, this book provides insights into the efficacy of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary working. Alongside research into similar environmental hazards, this book also draws upon the author’s own knowledge of flood risk management in distinctive non-contiguous interdisciplinary settings. The chapters draw together a different and distinctive set of interdisciplinary themes in flood risk management and social resilience. In doing so, it strives to communicate the different ways of thinking that can usefully contribute to flood risk management. This book would be ideal for those researching flood risk management, alongside scholars and non-scholars alike who are interested in finding ways of adapting to environmental hazards working with local communities.
Floods cause distress and damage wherever and whenever they happen. Flooding from rivers, estuaries and the sea threatens many millions of people worldwide and economic and insurance losses from flooding have increased significantly since 1990. Across the European Union, flood management policy is changing in response to the EU Directive on the assessment and management of flood risks, which requires a move from flood protection and defence to comprehensive flood risk management. Flood Risk Management: Research and Practice includes about 200 contributions from the international conference FLOODrisk 2008 (Oxford, UK, 30 September – 2 October 2008). FLOODrisk 2008 was an initiative of the FLOODsite research project on Integrated Flood Risk Analysis and Management Methodologies. FLOODsite was a major “Integrated Project” in the European Commission Sixth Framework Programme; contract number GOCE-CT-2004-505420. The conference provided a forum for leading researchers, flood risk managers, policy makers and practitioners from government, commercial and research organisations to gain an overview of advances in this important subject. Flood risk management practice crosses several professions and disciplines and these are represented in the breadth of the scope of the conference and these proceedings. The conference covered all aspects of flood risk: the causes of floods, their impacts on people, property and the environment, and portfolios of risk management measuresm, while the principal themes included: climate change, estimation of extremes, flash floods, flood forecasting and warning, inundation modelling, systems analysis, uncertainty, international programmes, flood defence infrastructure and assets, environmental impacts, human and social impacts, vulnerability and resilience, risk sharing, equity and social justice, and, civil contingency planning and emergency management. Flood Risk Management: Research and Practice will be of interest to an international readership, ranging from authorities, consultants and engineers involved in flood management; researchers, post graduate lecturers and students, to policy makers, particularly at national level.
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.
