scholarly journals Flood Risk and River Conservation: Mapping Citizen Perception to Support Sustainable River Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Scaini ◽  
Ana Stritih ◽  
Constance Brouillet ◽  
Chiara Scaini

Involving citizens in river and flood risk management is critical for risk reduction and sustainable development within river basins, but local community input is often limited. This is partly due to the difficulty of quantifying the perceived values and risks related to the rivers, because these are based on personal knowledge and opinions. There is a need for more data on locals’ opinions and how they are spatially distributed across the river basin. Studies analyzing how perceived risks match evidence-based data can be a first step to including local knowledge in the decision-making process and pose the basis to enhance preparedness. Here, we present a blueprint questionnaire to characterize the perception of flood risk and its spatial distribution across the river basin. Respondents are asked their perception of the role of the river in terms of flood risk and management, as well as to pinpoint on a map the areas they identify as the most dangerous during floods. The approach is tested on the Tagliamento River in the Italian Alps, characterized by debates regarding flood protection, flood management and ecological conservation. The flood risk perception map shows good agreement between perceived risk and existing flood risk assessment maps in the lower basin, where major floods happened in recent memory (1966). In the upper basin, despite having suffered frequent floods, participants are more uncertain about the risks. There is interest in being involved in the risk management debate, and most respondents believe that risk reduction and river conservation are compatible. Land use planning is identified as a factor that can increase flood risk. The results point to the necessity to tackle together conservation, risk management and land use planning in order to develop risk-oriented river management strategies. Our study demonstrates how online participatory mapping can be used to improve the understanding of citizens’ perceptions and expectations with regards to their river, and support participation in sustainable river management.

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 25-40
Author(s):  
Chonlatid Kittikhun ◽  
Sitang Pilailar ◽  
Suwatana Chittaladakorn ◽  
Eakawat Jhonpadit

Flood Risk Index (FRI) is the multi-criteria linked with the factors of vulnerability; exposure, susceptibility, and resilience. In order to establish local FRI, crucial local information have to be accumulated. However, under the limitation of land-use data, particular techniques were applied in this study. CA Markov model was used to analyze the past missing land-use data and, also forecast the future land-use of Pakpanang river basin under conditions of plan and without plan. The ratio changes of forest, agriculture, wetland and water, and urban areas were considered. Then, the result of LULC spatial-temporal changes was then applied to Hec-HMS and Hec-Ras , with Arc GIS extension of Hec-GeoHMS and Hec-GeoRas software, in order to evaluate the flood hydrographs and flood severity in three municipalities corresponding to 100-year return period rainfall. Afterward, the FRI of Pakpanang, Chianyai, and Hua-sai, which ranges from 0 to 1, were evaluated by using the modified FRI equations. It was found that sensitivity analysis in the area of forest on flood depth and inundation areas is incoherent. Nevertheless, without land-use planning, the changes in these three cities cause higher flood risk, where Chianyai is the riskiest as the FRIE is 0.58. Further consideration of FRIE and FRIP proportion that reveals the FRI deviation indicates that to reduce flood risk, Chianyai would need the most resources and highest effort comparison to Pakpanang and Hua-sai.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 3343
Author(s):  
James Gondwe ◽  
Mtafu Zeleza .A Manda ◽  
Dominic Kamlomo

This study examines how discriminatory land use planning predisposes the low income residents to flood disaster risks in Karonga town, Malawi. Using a qualitative research design, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten government and non government institutions engaged in land use planning and disaster risk management and traditional leaders. The study showed that theoretical aims of land use planning to improve the living environment remain partial and in certain cases exacerbate risks posed by floods because the planning tool divides the urban landscape into formal and informal spaces. Such separation which coincided with incomes levels forced the marginalised and urban poor to occupy flood-prone areas While literature on flood control promotes an integrated approach to flood risk management, land use planning practice is singled out as a regulatory measure which ironically not only fails to meet the needs, but also increases vulnerability to flood risks, of the urban poor residents. The study further revealed that land use planning has failed to reduce flood disaster risks in informal spaces because it is not compatible with the needs of the urban poor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1406-1420
Author(s):  
Jianwei Wang ◽  
Kun Wang ◽  
Tianling Qin ◽  
Hanjiang Nie ◽  
Zhenyu Lv ◽  
...  

AbstractLand use/cover change plays an important role in human development and environmental health and stability. Markov chain and a future land use simulation model were used to predict future change and simulate the spatial distribution of land use in the Huang-Huai-Hai river basin. The results show that cultivated land and grassland are the main land-use types in the basin, accounting for about 40% and 30%, respectively. The area of cultivated land decreased and artificial surfaces increased from 1980 to 2010. The degree of dynamic change of land use after the 1990s was greater than that before the 1990s. There is a high probability of exchange among cultivate land, forest and grassland. The area of forest decreased before 2000 and increased after 2000. Under the three emission scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5) of IPSL-CM5A-LR climate model, the area of cultivated land will decrease and that of grassland will increase in the upstream area while it will decrease in the downstream area. The above methods and rules will be of great help to future land use planning.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1513
Author(s):  
Yar M. Taraky ◽  
Yongbo Liu ◽  
Ed McBean ◽  
Prasad Daggupati ◽  
Bahram Gharabaghi

The Kabul River, while having its origin in Afghanistan, has a primary tributary, the Konar River, which originates in Pakistan and enters Afghanistan near Barikot-Arandu. The Kabul River then re-enters Pakistan near Laalpur, Afghanistan making it a true transboundary river. The catastrophic flood events due to major snowmelt events in the Hindu Kush mountains occur every other year, inundating many major urban centers. This study investigates the flood risk under 30 climate and dam management scenarios to assess opportunities for transboundary water management strategy in the Kabul River Basin (KRB). The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a watershed-scale hydraulic modeling tool that was employed to forecast peak flows to characterize flood inundation areas using the river flood routing modelling tool Hydrologic Engineering Center - River Analysis System -HEC-RAS for the Nowshera region. This study shows how integrated transboundary water management in the KRB can play a vital catalyst role with significant socio-economic benefits for both nations. The study proposes a KRB-specific agreement, where flood risk management is a significant driver that can bring both countries to work together under the Equitable Water Resource Utilization Doctrine to save lives in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The findings show that flood mitigation relying on collaborative efforts for both upstream and downstream riparian states is highly desirable.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Wallin

<p>Knowledge has been shown to be more effectively implemented in practice when produced in collaboration between researchers and other stakeholders as the co-produced knowledge is more likely to be accepted and found relevant. Knowledge co-production processes have however been found guilty of depoliticizing and hiding political struggles to the end of reinforcing existing unequal power relations and prevent broad societal transformation from taking place. From this perspective, knowledge co-production can come into conflict with participatory governance that focuses on the empowerment and capacity building of actors, social justice and advocacy. In this presentation I take a closer look at this conflictual perspective and propose a research focus on knowledge practices for exploring and analyzing participatory governance options for flood risk management (FRM) and disaster risk reduction (DRR). I do this by exemplifying and presenting a research design developed within the newly started PARADeS-project.</p><p>The PARADeS-project is a research project led by German research institutions in close collaboration with partners in Ghana and with the overall aim to contribute to enhancing Ghana’s national flood risk and disaster management strategy. Co-production of knowledge is foreseen to take place in several workshops including collaborative modelling, scenario- and policy back-casting exercises. One of the planned project outputs is a concept of participatory governance in FRM and DRR based on the findings from a stakeholder analysis, a policy network analysis and a participatory assessment of different policy options.</p><p>In this project context a research focus on stakeholders’ knowledge practices can be used to inform and improve the participatory governance concept and facilitate its implementation process. Knowledge is used by stakeholders as a powerful resource in suggesting certain policy options and convincing others of their necessity. Knowledge practices entail how actors use knowledge to argue, convince and make decisions. Through knowledge practices, stakeholders decide what knowledge to base decisions on and how to convince others of their position using that knowledge. What knowledge becomes accepted as legitimate in such interactions - often deliberative settings - can be decisive for the acceptability of any policy option. It is therefore important to study not only the different types of stakeholders and technical options for FRM and DRR, but the interaction between stakeholders and how they use information and co-create knowledge - the knowledge practices.</p><p>Within the presentation I discuss the proposed research design for how to study knowledge practices and how to make use of these findings when going from research project and co-production of knowledge to a concept of participatory governance in flood risk management and disaster risk reduction in Ghana.</p>


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Ciullo ◽  
Karin M. De Bruijn ◽  
Jan H. Kwakkel ◽  
Frans Klijn

Rivers typically flow through multiple flood-protected areas which are clearly interconnected, as risk reduction measures taken at one area, e.g., heightening dikes or building flood storage areas, affect risk elsewhere. We call these interconnections ‘hydraulic interactions’. The current approach to flood risk management, however, neglects hydraulic interactions for two reasons: They are uncertain and, furthermore, considering them would require the design of policies not only striving for risk reduction, but also accounting for risk transfers across flood-protected areas. In the present paper, we compare the performance of policies identified according to the current approach with those of two alternative formulations: One acknowledging hydraulic interactions and the other also including an additional decision criterion to account for equity in risk distribution across flood-protected areas. Optimal policies are first identified under deterministic hydraulic interactions, and, next, they are stress-tested under uncertainty. We found that the current approach leads to a false sense of equal risk distribution. It does, however, perform efficiently when a risk-averse approach towards uncertain hydraulic interactions is taken. Accounting for hydraulic interactions in the design of policies, instead, increases efficiency and both efficiency and equity when hydraulic interactions are considered deterministically and as uncertain, respectively.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viet-Tien Nguyen ◽  
Trong Hien Tran ◽  
Ngoc Anh Ha ◽  
Van Liem Ngo ◽  
Al-Ansari Nadhir ◽  
...  

Landslides affect properties and the lives of a large number of people in many hilly parts of Vietnam and in the world. Damages caused by landslides can be reduced by understanding distribution, nature, mechanisms and causes of landslides with the help of model studies for better planning and risk management of the area. Development of landslide susceptibility maps is one of the main steps in landslide management. In this study, the main objective is to develop GIS based hybrid computational intelligence models to generate landslide susceptibility maps of the Da Lat province, which is one of the landslide prone regions of Vietnam. Novel hybrid models of alternating decision trees (ADT) with various ensemble methods, namely bagging, dagging, MultiBoostAB, and RealAdaBoost, were developed namely B-ADT, D-ADT, MBAB-ADT, RAB-ADT, respectively. Data of 72 past landslide events was used in conjunction with 11 landslide conditioning factors (curvature, distance from geological boundaries, elevation, land use, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), relief amplitude, stream density, slope, lithology, weathering crust and soil) in the development and validation of the models. Area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), and several statistical measures were applied to validate these models. Results indicated that performance of all the models was good (AUC value greater than 0.8) but B-ADT model performed the best (AUC= 0.856). Landslide susceptibility maps generated using the proposed models would be helpful to decision makers in the risk management for land use planning and infrastructure development.


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