scholarly journals River science and flood risk management policy in England

2021 ◽  
pp. 030913332110363
Author(s):  
Malcolm Newson ◽  
John Lewin ◽  
Paul Raven
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Adaptive Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Risk Management Policy

We review the role of science in shaping river flood risk management policy in England, highlighting the relatively recent influence of fluvial geomorphology, river ecology, climate change and ecosystem services in evidence-based decision-making. These disciplines, together with an historical perspective, catchment-scale delivery, integrated land and water management planning, and adaptive management are crucial in managing future flood risk. A central tenet of previous land drainage policy was a professional (and public) mindset about flood ‘prevention’ solutions for river flooding. As a direct consequence, more than 8,500 km of rivers were ‘improved’ by mechanical dredging during the 1930s to 1980s; habitats were destroyed, but flooding continued. A more enlightened, long-term approach has since evolved in response to environmental imperatives and lessons learnt from several major floods during the last two ‘flood-rich’ decades. River science, local knowledge and land management incentives allow more natural processes to be restored in river catchments. The natural capital and ecosystem service benefits of river systems are now better understood and quantified, whereas the importance of sediment transport is fully recognised, with sources and sinks treated more holistically than in the past. Evaluating the outcomes of innovative runoff and river management techniques from both physical and socioeconomic perspectives will determine the success of a catchment-based approach. We highlight some of the uncertainties, nuances and assumptions associated with recent initiatives such as Natural Flood Management, Citizen Science and Flood Action Groups. Further integration between policy, strategic planning and local delivery is needed to anticipate and respond to climate and catchment land use changes. River science will play a crucial part in identifying the most effective way of improving flood management and in a way that helps to deliver the recovery of nature. It will inform adaptive management to cope with climate change.

scholarly journals The evolution of climate change guidance for fluvial flood risk management in England

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas S Reynard ◽  
Alison L Kay ◽  
Molly Anderson ◽  
Bill Donovan ◽  
Caroline Duckworth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Floods are one of the biggest natural hazards to society, and there is increasing concern about the potential impacts of climate change on flood occurrence and magnitude. Furthermore, flood risk is likely to increase in the future not just through increased flood occurrence, but also through socio-economic changes, such as increasing population. The extent to which adaptation measures can offset this increased risk will depend on the level of future climate change, but there exists an urgent need for information on the potential impacts of climate change on floods, so that these can be accounted for by flood management authorities and local planners aiming to reduce flood risk. Agencies across the UK have been pro-active in providing such guidance for many years and in refining it as the science of climate change and hydrological impacts has developed. The history of this guidance for fluvial flood risk in England is presented and discussed here, including the recent adoption of a regional risk-based approach. Such an approach could be developed and applied to flood risk management in other countries, and to other sectors affected by climate change.

We are all tributaries: combining art and science to transform human relationship with rivers.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Archer
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
Transformative Process

<div> <p>What is your relationship with river? This was the central question posed by a series of creative practice workshops with scientists and local authorities who worked with complex flood risk management issues. Many of the flood mitigating solutions offered to managers are based on scientific methods to control and reduce river flooding. Scientific methods not only provide a sense of control towards river dynamics, but also develop a sense of security for people to feel safe from water. Because of climate change, flood events are increasing globally and some countries, like Scotland, are seeking to expand the possibilities of coping with extreme weather through broader, more holistic ways to mitigate flooding.</p> </div><div> <p>The aim of this study was to bridge rational knowledge often associated with scientific methods and the tacit knowledge that might emerge through participative art. The creative potential of art and participation in art practice was employed in collaboration with scientists and policy makers to inform future solutions towards flood mitigation.</p> </div><div> <p>The research used the theoretical premises described in what Irwin (2013) describes as a/r/tography: “drawing upon the professional practices of educators, artists, and researchers, it entangles and performs what Deleuze and Guattari (1987) refer to as a rhizome, an assemblage of objects, ideas, and structures that move in dynamic motion performing waves of intensities that create new understandings.” (p.199). Unlike the outcome and target driven aims of scientific methodology, these “waves of intensities” are crucial to understanding the form of intersubjective work which is crucial for art and creativity in art practice, because this is where affective transformation of meaning and understanding happens, through sensing, feeling and perceiving.</p> </div><div> <p>In the case of these creative practice workshops, the transformation that was explored was a shift from anthropocentric thinking about water to non-anthropocentric thought, achieved through sensing, feeling and perceiving. The creative practice workshops at the Scotland flood management conference 2020 were part of a larger process, where the intent was to initiate a transformative process that would work towards developing different ways of thinking in terms of Flood Risk Management. The process began with an artistic engagement with the river and the development of underwater film of rivers. This was followed by two participatory workshops. The next step consisted of an artistic response to the creative process undertaken by the participants. The last step was an engagement with water management policy makers. This will be further discussed in terms of a transformative process between artist and scientist.</p> </div>

scholarly journals Assessment of the Netherlands’ Flood Risk Management Policy Under Global Change

AMBIO ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frans Klijn ◽  
Karin M. de Bruijn ◽  
Joost Knoop ◽  
Jaap Kwadijk
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Global Change ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Risk Management Policy

scholarly journals What drives community flood risk management? Policy diffusion or free-riding

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
Douglas S. Noonan ◽  
Lilliard E. Richardson ◽  
Abdul-Akeem Sadiq ◽  
Jenna Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Policy Diffusion ◽  
Free Riding ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Risk Management Policy

scholarly journals Review article: A review and critical analysis of the efforts towards urban flood risk management in the Lagos region of Nigeria

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. C. Nkwunonwo ◽  
M. Whitworth ◽  
B. Baily
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Flood Damage ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Urban Flooding ◽  
Urban Flood

Abstract. Urban flooding has been and will continue to be a significant problem for many cities across the developed and developing world. Crucial to the amelioration of the effects of these floods is the need to formulate a sound flood management policy, which is driven by knowledge of the frequency and magnitude of impacts of these floods. Within the area of flood research, attempts are being made to gain a better understanding of the causes, impacts, and pattern of urban flooding. According to the United Nations office for disaster reduction (UNISDR), flood risk is conceptualized on the basis of three integral components which are frequently adopted during flood damage estimation. These components are: probability of flood hazard, the level of exposure, and vulnerabilities of elements at risk. Reducing the severity of each of these components is the objective of flood risk management under the UNISDR guideline and idea of “living with floods”. On the basis of this framework, the present research reviews flood risk within the Lagos area of Nigeria over the period 1968–2012. During this period, floods have caused harm to millions of people physically, emotionally, and economically. Arguably over this period the efforts of stakeholders to address the challenges appear to have been limited by, amongst other things, a lack of reliable data, a lack of awareness amongst the population affected, and a lack of knowledge of flood risk mitigation. It is the aim of this research to assess the current understanding of flood risk and management in Lagos and to offer recommendations towards future guidance.

Evolution of Strategic Flood Risk Management in Support of Social Justice, Ecosystem Health, and Resilience

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sayers
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Policy And Planning

Throughout history, flood management practice has evolved in response to flood events. This heuristic approach has yielded some important incremental shifts in both policy and planning (from the need to plan at a catchment scale to the recognition that flooding arises from multiple sources and that defenses, no matter how reliable, fail). Progress, however, has been painfully slow and sporadic, but a new, more strategic, approach is now emerging. A strategic approach does not, however, simply sustain an acceptable level of flood defence. Strategic Flood Risk Management (SFRM) is an approach that relies upon an adaptable portfolio of measures and policies to deliver outcomes that are socially just (when assessed against egalitarian, utilitarian, and Rawlsian principles), contribute positively to ecosystem services, and promote resilience. In doing so, SFRM offers a practical policy and planning framework to transform our understanding of risk and move toward a flood-resilient society. A strategic approach to flood management involves much more than simply reducing the chance of damage through the provision of “strong” structures and recognizes adaptive management as much more than simply “wait and see.” SFRM is inherently risk based and implemented through a continuous process of review and adaptation that seeks to actively manage future uncertainty, a characteristic that sets it apart from the linear flood defense planning paradigm based upon a more certain view of the future. In doing so, SFRM accepts there is no silver bullet to flood issues and that people and economies cannot always be protected from flooding. It accepts flooding as an important ecosystem function and that a legitimate ecosystem service is its contribution to flood risk management. Perhaps most importantly, however, SFRM enables the inherent conflicts as well as opportunities that characterize flood management choices to be openly debated, priorities to be set, and difficult investment choices to be made.

scholarly journals SWOT PRINCIPLE IN FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT

2021 ◽  
Vol XXVIII (2) ◽  
pp. 125-137
Author(s):  
Vasile Grama ◽  
◽  
Agostino Avanzi ◽  
Livia Nistor-Lopatenco ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Development Trend ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Flood Damage ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Global Statistics ◽  
Analysis Models

An analysis of global statistics shows a substantial increase in flood damage over the past few decades. With the recent transition to a more risk-based approach in European flood management policy, flood analysis models have become an important part of flood risk management. In many cases, flood damages are extensive to the environment, to the economy and also socially. According to the priority development trend "Infrastructure and Environment", Ungheni district of Republic of Moldova (RM) aims for an efficient infrastructure, based on environmental protection, whose development, operation and maintenance will be done using of a database, protocols, existing guides and accessible to the level of each local public administration. In the last decade, projects have been implemented in Moldova to study the phenomenon of floods in order to develop structural and non-structural measures to protect localities. This article aims is to systematize the existing knowledge and characteristics of the methods available to give operational recommendations and principles that can support authorities, local entities, and the stakeholders involved in decision-making with regard to flood risk management in their compliance with the Floods Directive (2007/60/EC), national and local legal framework.

scholarly journals A comparison of the causes, effects and aftermaths of the coastal flooding of England in 1953 and France in 2010

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2321-2333 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Lumbroso ◽  
F. Vinet
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Coastal Flooding ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Risk Management Policy

Abstract. This paper provides a comparison of the causes, effects and aftermaths of the coastal flooding that occurred on the east coast of England in 1953 and the west coast of France in 2010 that resulted in 307 and 47 deaths respectively. The causes of both events are strikingly similar. Both were caused by a combination of high tides, low atmospheric pressure, high winds and the failure of poorly maintained flood defences. In both cases the number of deaths was related to the vulnerability of the buildings and people. Buildings in the flood zones were often single storey bungalows and the people who died were mostly over 60 yr of age. Both tragedies were national disasters. The 1953 flood in England acted as a catalyst for an acceleration in flood risk management policy and practice. It resulted in: the development of a Storm Tide Warning System for the east coast of England; the setting of new design standards for coastal flood defences; increased investment in improving coastal defences; and a substantial new research effort into coastal processes, protection and forecasting. In France there has also been an episodic shift in flood risk management policy with the focus falling on: control of urban developments in areas at risk of flooding; improved coastal forecasting and warning; strengthening of flood defences; and developing a "culture of risk awareness". This paper outlines the lessons that can be learnt from the two events and provides recommendations concerning how future loss of life as a result of coastal flooding can be reduced.

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