scholarly journals Strategies for Testing the Impact of Natural Flood Risk Management Measures

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Hankin ◽  
Peter Metcalfe ◽  
David Johnson ◽  
Nick A. Chappell ◽  
Trevor Page ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
The Impact

Flood Resilient Construction and Adaptation of Buildings

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Proverbs ◽  
Jessica Lamond
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
The United States ◽  
Water Entry ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Flood Plains ◽  
Avoidance Strategies ◽  
The Impact

Flood resilient construction has become an essential component of the integrated approach to flood risk management, now widely accepted through the concepts of making space for water and living with floods. Resilient construction has been in place for centuries, but only fairly recently has it been recognized as part of this wider strategy to manage flood risk. Buildings and the wider built environment are known to play a key role in flood risk management, and when buildings are constructed on or near to flood plains there is an obvious need to protect these. Engineered flood defense systems date back centuries, with early examples seen in China and Egypt. Levees were first built in the United States some 150 years ago, and were followed by the development of flood control acts and regulations. In 1945, Gilbert Fowler White, the so-called “father of floodplain management,” published his influential thesis which criticized the reliance on engineered flood defenses and began to change these approaches. In Europe, a shortage of farmable land led to the use of land reclamation schemes and the ensuing Land Drainage acts before massive flood events in the mid-20th century led to a shift in thinking towards the engineered defense schemes such as the Thames Barrier and Dutch dyke systems. The early 21st century witnessed the emergence of the “living with water” philosophy, which has resulted in the renewed understanding of flood resilience at a property level. The scientific study of construction methods and building technologies that are robust to flooding is a fairly recent phenomenon. There are a number of underlying reasons for this, but the change in flood risk philosophy coupled with the experience of flood events and the long process of recovery is helping to drive research and investment in this area. This has led to a more sophisticated understanding of the approaches to avoiding damage at an individual property level, categorized under three strategies, namely avoidance technology, water exclusion technology, and water entry technology. As interest and policy has shifted to water entry approaches, alongside this has been the development of research into flood resilient materials and repair and reinstatement processes, the latter gaining much attention in the recognition that experience will prompt resilient responses and that the point of reinstatement provides a good opportunity to install resilient measures. State-of-the-art practices now center on avoidance strategies incorporating planning legislation in many regions to prohibit or restrict new development in flood plains. Where development pressures mean that new buildings are permitted, there is now a body of knowledge around the impact of flooding on buildings and flood resilient construction and techniques. However, due to the variety and complexity of architecture and construction styles and varying flood risk exposure, there remain many gaps in our understanding, leading to the use of trial and error and other pragmatic approaches. Some examples of avoidance strategies include the use of earthworks, floating houses, and raised construction. The concept of property level flood resilience is an emerging concept in the United Kingdom and recognizes that in some cases a hybrid approach might be favored in which the amount of water entering a property is limited, together with the likely damage that is caused. The technology and understanding is moving forward with a greater appreciation of the benefits from combining strategies and property level measures, incorporating water resistant and resilient materials. The process of resilient repair and considerate reinstatement is another emerging feature, recognizing that there will be a need to dry, clean, and repair flood-affected buildings. The importance of effective and timely drying of properties, including the need to use materials that dry rapidly and are easy to decontaminate, has become more apparent and is gaining attention. Future developments are likely to concentrate on promoting the uptake of flood resilient materials and technologies both in the construction of new and in the retrofit and adaptation of existing properties. Further development of flood resilience technology that enhances the aesthetic appeal of adapted property would support the uptake of measures. Developments that reduce cost or that offer other aesthetic or functional advantages may also reduce the barriers to uptake. A greater understanding of performance standards for resilient materials will help provide confidence in such measures and support uptake, while further research around the breathability of materials and concerns around mold and the need to avoid creating moisture issues inside properties represent some of the key areas.

scholarly journals A Flood Risk Management Program of Wadi Baysh Dam on the Downstream Area: An Integration of Hydrologic and Hydraulic Models, Jizan Region, KSA

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazen M. Abu-Abdullah ◽  
Ahmed M. Youssef ◽  
Norbert H. Maerz ◽  
Emad Abu-AlFadail ◽  
Hasan M. Al-Harbi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Dam Failure ◽  
Rainfall Events ◽  
Risk Management Program ◽  
Dam Site ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sea Coast

For public safety, especially for people who dwell in the valley that is located downstream of a dam site, as well as the protection of economic and environmental resources, risk management programs are urgently required all over the world. Despite the high safety standards of dams because of improved engineering and excellent construction in recent times, a zero-risk guarantee is not possible, and accidents can happen, triggered by natural hazards, human actions, or just because the dam is aging. In addition to that is the impact of potential climate change, which may not have been taken into account in the original design. A flood risk management program, which is essential for protecting downstream dam areas, is required. Part of this program is to prepare an inundation map to simulate the impact of dam failure on the downstream areas. The Baysh dam has crucial importance both to protect the downstream areas against flooding, to provide drinking water to cities in the surrounding areas, and to use the excess water for irrigation of the agricultural areas located downstream of the dam. Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was affected by extraordinary rainstorm events causing many problems in many different areas. One of these events happened along the basin of the Baysh dam, which raised the alarm to the decision makers and to the public to take suitable action before dam failure occurs. The current study deals with a flood risk analysis of Wadi Baysh using an integration of hydrologic and hydraulic models. A detailed field investigation of the dam site and the downstream areas down to the Red Sea coast has been undertaken. Three scenarios were applied to check the dam and the reservoir functionality; the first scenario at 100- and 200-year return period rainfall events, the second scenario according to the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP), and the third scenario if the dam fails. Our findings indicated that the Baysh dam and reservoir at 100- and 200-year rainfall events are adequate, however, at the PMP the water will spill out from the spillway at ~8900 m3/s causing flooding to the downstream areas; thus, a well-designed channel along the downstream wadi portion up to the Red Sea coast is required. However, at dam failure, the inundation model indicated that a vast area of the section downstream of the dam will be utterly devastated, causing a significant loss of lives and destruction of urban areas and agricultural lands. Eventually, an effective warning system and flood hazard management system are imperative.

scholarly journals Assessing the Impact of Seasonal Population Fluctuation on Regional Flood Risk Management

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1118-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Smith ◽  
Andy Newing ◽  
Niall Quinn ◽  
David Martin ◽  
Samantha Cockings ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Population Fluctuation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Seasonal Population

scholarly journals Rapid flood risk screening model for compound flood events in Beira, Mozambique

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik C. van Berchum ◽  
Mathijs van Ledden ◽  
Jos S. Timmermans ◽  
Jan H. Kwakkel ◽  
Sebastiaan N. Jonkman
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Flood Simulation ◽  
High Exposure ◽  
Screening Model ◽  
Coastal Cities ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Coastal cities combine intensive socio-economic activity and investments with high exposure to flood hazards. Developing effective strategies to manage flood risk in coastal cities is often a costly and complicated process. In the design of these strategies, engineers rely on computationally demanding flood simulation models and only compare a few strategies due to computational constraints. This limits the efficacy of standard flood simulation models in the crucial conceptual phase of flood risk management. This paper presents the Flood Risk Reduction Evaluation and Screening (FLORES)-model, which specifically aims to provide useful risk information early on in the planning process. FLORES performs numerous quick simulations and compares the impact of many storms, strategies, and future scenarios. This article presents the screening model and demonstrates its merits in a case study for Beira, Mozambique. Our results demonstrate that expansion of the drainage capacity and strengthening of its coastal protection in the southwest, are crucial components of any effective flood risk management strategy for Beira.

scholarly journals How flood risks shape policies: flood exposure and risk perception in Swiss municipalities

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anik Glaus ◽  
Markus Mosimann ◽  
Veronika Röthlisberger ◽  
Karin Ingold
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risks ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
Flood Exposure ◽  
Management Policies ◽  
Flood Risk Perception

AbstractDespite an increasing number of people exposed to flood risks in Europe, flood risk perception remains low and effective flood risk management policies are rarely implemented. It becomes increasingly important to understand how local governments can design effective flood risk management policies to address flood risks. In this article, we study whether high flood exposure and flood risk perception correlate with the demand for a specific design of flood risk management policies. We take the ideal case of Switzerland and analyze flood risk management portfolios in 18 flood-prone municipalities along the Aare River. We introduce a novel combination of risk analysis and public policy data: we analyze correlations between recorded flood exposure data and survey data on flood risk perception and policy preferences for selected flood risk management measures. Our results indicate that local governments with high flood risk perception tend to prefer non-structural measures, such as spatial planning and ecological river restoration, to infrastructure measures. In contrast, flood exposure is neither linked to flood risk perception nor to policy preferences. We conclude that flood risk perception is key: it can decisively affect local governments’ preferences to implement specific diversified policy portfolios including more preventive or integrated flood risk management measures. These findings imply that local governments in flood-prone areas should invest in raising their population’s awareness capacity of flood risks and keep it high during periods without flooding.

scholarly journals Just retreat—how different countries deal with it: examples from Austria and England

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Thaler
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Impact

AbstractFlood risk management has developed a large inventory of potential actions to climate-related hazards. Within this wide array of measures, managed retreat of communities at risk is usually only taken into account if other strategies are ineffective or unavailable. Communities who are affected by managed retreat are confronted with radical changes in their livelihood. However, managed retreat is highly contested. The use of managed retreat includes not only the relocation of house owners but also has the challenge that it discriminates between landowners as some gain and others lose. Therefore, managed retreat raises issues of social justice. To mitigate the impact on land, compensation plays a crucial role in flood risk management. The level and kind of compensation varies between countries across the globe. In this paper, we compare two different policy compensation frameworks in two European countries: Austria and England. The comparative study shows how different compensation schemes affect social justice, both in terms of substantive distributions but also in terms of procedural justice.

scholarly journals Socio-Economic Assessment on Flood Risk Impact: A Methodological Review Toward Environmental Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 943 (1) ◽  
pp. 012010
Author(s):  
A Samsuddin ◽  
Z K Kaman ◽  
N Mat Husin
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Economic Assessment ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Socio Economic Impact ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The disastrous events of land flooding prompt an urgency to flood risk management to counterpart this issue with the concept of flood damage divided into four types: direct, indirect, tangible, and intangible. This paper reviewed previous articles regarding flood risk management with a specific focus on methods used for socio-economic impact assessment towards ensuring a sustainable environment. The methodological approach can be sorted into four (4) main types group which are i) historical disaster statistic method, ii) index system method, iii) scenario simulation analysis, and iv) GIS-based approach. Among others, the integrated GIS-based approach becomes the most practical method in conducting socio-economic assessment for flood risk impact. As most of the socio-economic impact-based studies are conducted in western countries, this paper proposed the idea that for different types of countries such as the Asian countries, differences in topography, weather and seasons will lead to a different scale or possibly different types of socio-economic impact, which may require a new approach of assessing the impact. It is also proposed that any socioeconomic and environmental impact assessment needs to explicitly consider both direct and indirect impact. This is to ensure the approach used is holistic, valid, reliable, and more accurately reflect the real nature of the respective flood risk while the gap of the studies also can be identified.

Flood Risk Management: Analysis of Evacuation Process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Borowska-Stefańska ◽  
Szymon Wiśniewski
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Flood Protection ◽  
Traffic Load ◽  
Forthcoming Article ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
The Impact

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science. Please check back later for the full article. Globally, floods cause widespread damage, especially in densely populated areas exposed to heavy land use. As a result, enormous financial expenditure is invested in flood protection and the mitigation of flood-related effects. Decisions on the allocation of resources to ensure flood protection are made on the determination of the costs entailed and the expected benefits that such actions may bring. From the economic point of view, the outlays incurred for flood protection should be outweighed by the expected results. For this reason, flood risk management is very important. Mitigation of flood-related loss should take into account a comprehensive spectrum of actions, from prevention and education, through measures taken during a flood, to strategies that help people return to normality once the disaster is over. In the 21st century there has been a radical change in the approach to the issue of flood protection (as seen in the 2007 Floods Directive)—it is no longer believed that there is such a thing as complete protection against flood, but that the damage and loss floods inflict can be mitigated, and since floods cannot be completely eradicated, societies must learn how to live with them. In the event of a flood, pre-prepared procedures to counteract and mitigate the effects of the disaster are followed, including evacuation of people and movable property from affected areas. Evacuation planning is meant to reduce the number of disaster-related fatalities and material losses. Crucially, this type of planning requires a well-defined, optimum evacuation policy for people/households within flood hazard areas. In addition, evacuation modeling is particularly important for authorities, planners, and other experts managing the process of evacuation, as it allows for more effective relocation of evacuees. Modeling can also facilitate the identification of bottlenecks within the transport system prior to the occurrence of a disaster, that is, the impact of flood-related road closures and the effects a phased evacuation has on traffic load, among other things, can be determined. Furthermore, not only may the ability to model alternative evacuation scenarios lead to the establishment of appropriate policies, evacuation strategies, and contingency plans, but it might also facilitate better communication and information flow.

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