The need for municipal action planning against flood risk: the risk-informed journey of the municipality of Oliva (Spain)

Society demands higher safety levels, including those actions related to urban planning and protection against natural hazards and manmade threats. Therefore, authorities respond to these demands through new regulatory and operational frameworks to cope with existing and future risks. The Spanish regulatory framework regarding flood risk management, based on the European context, defines the required procedures for emergency management, involving all authorities responsable for civil protection and urban planning. This framework requires all municipalities at medium or high flood risk to develop and implement local action plans against flood risk (PAMRI, by its acronym in Spanish), which must include a risk estimation, analysis and evaluation, along with the description of actions for a risk-informed urban planning and emergency management. The City Council of Oliva developed the corresponding plan, approved by the regional government in June 2016, including new aspects such as the figure of the Technical Director, and a comprehensive and quantitative flood risk analysis to support decisionmaking on emergency management and planning.

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Proactive Actions Based on a Resilient Approach to Urban Seismic Risk Mitigation

The Open Construction and Building Technology Journal ◽

10.2174/1874836802014010321 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 321-335

Author(s):

Marco Vona

Keyword(s):

Urban Planning ◽

Emergency Management ◽

Seismic Risk ◽

Risk Mitigation ◽

Housing Stock ◽

Mitigation Strategies ◽

Housing System ◽

Management Tools ◽

Natural Risk ◽

Seismic Risk Mitigation

Background: Seismic risk mitigation is an important issue in earthquake-prone countries, and needs to be solved in those complex communities governed by complex processes, where urban planning, socioeconomic dynamics, and, often, the need to preserve cultural assets are present simultaneously. In recent years, due to limited financial resources, mitigation activities have often been limited to post-earthquake events, and only a few in periods of inactivity, particularly in urban planning. At this point, a significant change in point of view is necessary. Methods: The seismic risk mitigation (and more generally, natural risk mitigation) must be considered as the main topic in urban planning and in the governance of communities. In fact, in several recent earthquakes, significant socioeconomic losses have been caused by the low or lack of resilience of the communities. This is mainly due to the high vulnerability of private buildings, in particular, housing units. Results: Therefore, in recent years, several studies have been conducted on the seismic resilience of communities. However, significant improvements are still needed for the resilience assessment of the housing stock, both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this study, which is applied to the housing system, a proposal regarding a change in urban planning and emergency management tools based on the concept of resilience is reported. As a first application, a case study in Italy is considered. Conclusion: The proposal is focused on defining and quantifying the improvement of the resilience of the communities and this must be obtained by modifying the current Civil Protection plan. New tools are based on a new resilience community plan by encompassing urban planning tools, resilient mitigation strategies, and consequently, emergency management planning.

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A reliable rainfall–runoff model for flood forecasting: review and application to a semi-urbanized watershed at high flood risk in Italy

Hydrology Research ◽

10.2166/nh.2016.037 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 726-740 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Daniele Masseroni ◽

Alessio Cislaghi ◽

Stefania Camici ◽

Christian Massari ◽

Luca Brocca

Keyword(s):

Flood Risk ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Rainfall Runoff ◽

Number Of Factors ◽

Wide Range ◽

Median Volume ◽

Flood Estimation ◽

High Flood ◽

Rainfall Runoff Model ◽

Flooding Events

Many rainfall–runoff (RR) models are available in the scientific literature. Selecting the best structure and parameterization for a model is not straightforward and depends on a broad number of factors, including climatic conditions, catchment characteristics, temporal/spatial resolution and model objectives. In this study, the RR model ‘Modello Idrologico Semi-Distribuito in continuo’ (MISDc), mainly developed for flood simulation in Mediterranean basins, was tested on the Seveso basin, which is stressed several times a year by flooding events mainly caused by excessive urbanization. The work summarizes a compendium of the MISDc applications over a wide range of catchments in European countries and then it analyses the performances over the Seveso basin. The results show a good fit behaviour during both the calibration and the validation periods with a Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient index larger than 0.9. Moreover, the median volume and peak discharge errors calculated on several flood events were less than 25%. In conclusion, we can be assured that the reliability and computational speed could make the MISDc model suitable for flood estimation in many catchments of different geographical contexts and land use characteristics. Moreover, MISDc will also be useful for future support of real-time decision-making for flood risk management in the Seveso basin.

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Guadalupe, Spain: The Organic Growth of a Monastery and the Morphology of a Medieval Village

Journal of Urban History ◽

10.1177/0096144217746976 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 542-556

Author(s):

José-Carlos Salcedo

Keyword(s):

Urban Planning ◽

Spanish America ◽

Regional Government ◽

Urban Networks ◽

Historical Landscape ◽

Organic Growth ◽

World Heritage List ◽

The World ◽

Artistic Heritage ◽

The Village

The Royal Monastery of Guadalupe is the most important medieval monument in Extremadura, Spain. It is important for its architectural and artistic heritage, its history, and its impact on Spanish America. In 1993, the monastery achieved the highest symbol of respect: inclusion in the World Heritage List. However, at that time, there were no plans that illustrated the different stages of the growth of the monastery and the village. In this article, we present a number of previously unpublished plans, which depict the urban networks and the morphology of Guadalupe. These plans reveal the construction of an integrated historical landscape following seven centuries of history and interactions between humans and their environment. In addition, they portray the destruction of an important part of this heritage in recent years under the Regional Government of Extremadura because of a lack of urban planning.

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Modelisation Hydraulique Mono Dimensionnel Par HEC RAS, Application Sur L’oued Aggay (Ville De Sefrou)

European Scientific Journal ESJ ◽

10.19044/esj.2018.v14n18p110 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (18) ◽

pp. 110 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Meriam Lahsaini ◽

Hassan Tabyaoui

Keyword(s):

Urban Planning ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Statistical Methods ◽

Flood Risk ◽

Water Levels ◽

Hydrological Study ◽

Geographical Position ◽

The Subject ◽

Flooded Area ◽

The City

The city of Sefrou, because of its geographical position, its cultural heritage and urban planning, than economically, is classified as one of the sites with a vulnerability particular to floods. Oued Aggay, the subject of this study, constitutes a danger potential because of the violence of its floods. In this perspective that comes this study that part of the creation and management of a spatial database on flood risk in the Sebou basin. It aims to spatialize the extent of the floods of Oued Aggay and propose solutions to protection the city of Sefrou against floods. The chosen approach goes through a hydrological study, the choice of profiles and the construction of onedimensional model from HEC RAS hydrology software. This study allowed us to simulate floods by statistical methods, identify flood zones and determine the different water levels in the flooded area for the Oued Aggay watershed.

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National flood modelling for insurance purposes: using IFSAR for flood risk estimation in Europe

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-9-449-2005 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 449-456 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

R. Sanders ◽

F. Shaw ◽

H. MacKay ◽

H. Galy ◽

M. Foote

Keyword(s):

Flood Risk ◽

Information Needs ◽

Risk Estimation ◽

Risk Identification ◽

Flood Events ◽

Digital Terrain ◽

Terrain Models ◽

Future Events ◽

Potential Benefits ◽

The Uk

Abstract. Flood risk poses a major problem for insurers and governments who ultimately pay the financial costs of losses resulting from flood events. Insurers therefore face the problem of how to assess their exposure to floods and how best to price the flood element of their insurance products. This paper looks at the insurance implications of recent flood events in Europe and the issues surrounding insurance of potential future events. In particular, the paper will focus on the flood risk information needs of insurers and how these can be met. The data requirements of national and regional flood models are addressed in the context of the accuracy of available data on property location. Terrain information is generally the weakest component of sophisticated flood models. Therefore, various sources of digital terrain models (DTM) are examined and discussed with consideration of the vertical and horizontal accuracy, the speed of acquisition, the costs and the comprehensiveness of the data. The NEXTMap DTM series from Intermap Technologies Inc. is proposed as a suitable DTM for flood risk identification and mapping, following its use in the UK. Its acquisition, processing and application is described and future plans discussed. Examples are included of the application of flood information to insurance property information and the potential benefits and advantages of using suitable hazard modelling data sources are detailed.

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Disaster Risk Analysis Part 2: The Systemic Underestimation of Risk

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management ◽

10.1515/jhsem-2017-0006 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Aaida A. Mamuji ◽

David Etkin

Keyword(s):

Risk Analysis ◽

Emergency Management ◽

Homeland Security ◽

Rare Events ◽

Risk Estimation ◽

Cumulative Risk ◽

Disaster Risk ◽

Data Availability ◽

Potential Contribution ◽

Disaster Risk Analysis

Abstract How risk is defined, the nature of methodologies used to assess risk, and the degree to which rare events should be included in a disaster risk analysis, are important considerations when developing policies, programs and priorities to manage risk. Each of these factors can significantly affect risk estimation. In Part 1 of this paper [Etkin, D. A., A. A. Mamuji, and L. Clarke. 2018. “Disaster Risk Analysis Part 1: The Importance of Including Rare Events.” Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.] we concluded that excluding rare events has the potential to seriously underestimate the cumulative risk from all possible events,For example, of the 100 most expensive weather disasters in the US, the single most expensive event accounts for 16% of total economic impacts. Similarly, the worst explosion disaster accounts for 17% of the fatalities of the total 100 worst events. though including them can be very challenging both from a methodological and data availability perspective. Underestimating risk can result in flawed disaster risk reduction policies, resulting in insufficient attention being devoted to mitigation and/or prevention. In Part 2, we survey various governmental emergency management policies and methodologies in order to evaluate varying equations used to define risk, and to assess potential biases within disaster risk analyses that do comparative risk ranking. We find (1) that the equations used to define risk used by emergency management organizations are frequently less robust than they should or are able to be, and (2) that methodologies used to assess risk are often inadequate to properly account for the potential contribution of rare events. We conclude that there is a systemic bias within many emergency management organizations that results in underestimation of risk.

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Assessing the susceptibility of schools to flood events in Iran

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-75291-3 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Saleh Yousefi ◽

Hamid Reza Pourghasemi ◽

Sayed Naeim Emami ◽

Omid Rahmati ◽

Shahla Tavangar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Flood Risk ◽

Flood Hazard ◽

Rural Students ◽

Flood Hazards ◽

Analytic Hierarchy ◽

Flood Susceptibility ◽

Susceptibility Maps ◽

High Flood ◽

Analytic Hierarchy Process Method ◽

Very High

Abstract Catastrophic floods cause deaths, injuries, and property damages in communities around the world. The losses can be worse among those who are more vulnerable to exposure and this can be enhanced by communities’ vulnerabilities. People in undeveloped and developing countries, like Iran, are more vulnerable and may be more exposed to flood hazards. In this study we investigate the vulnerabilities of 1622 schools to flood hazard in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, Iran. We used four machine learning models to produce flood susceptibility maps. The analytic hierarchy process method was enhanced with distance from schools to create a school-focused flood-risk map. The results indicate that 492 rural schools and 147 urban schools are in very high-risk locations. Furthermore, 54% of rural students and 8% of urban students study schools in locations of very high flood risk. The situation should be examined very closely and mitigating actions are urgently needed.

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Utilization of the Flood Simulation Model for Disaster Management of Local Government

Journal of Disaster Research ◽

10.20965/jdr.2016.p1161 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1161-1175 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Daisuke Kuribayashi ◽

◽

Miho Ohara ◽

Takahiro Sayama ◽

Atsuhiko Konja ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Disaster Management ◽

Flood Risk ◽

Mountainous Region ◽

Rainfall Runoff ◽

Insufficient Information ◽

Flood Simulation ◽

Inundation Depth ◽

Management Personnel ◽

High Flood ◽

Inundation Model

This paper proposes a method to evaluate the flood risk of each district in a municipality to assist disaster management personnel. The method is specifically for municipalities in a mountainous region where insufficient information is available for practical disaster management. Using this method, we conducted inundation analysis for multiple patterns of rainfall and discharge using a rainfall-runoff-inundation model, and estimated the maximum inundation depth and duration. Based on the estimation, we developed a “flood diagnostic chart” to evaluate district-level flood risk, additionally considering other indicators. Moreover, we located flood hotspots, which are areas requiring extra precautions because of the high flood risk for districts.

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