Advances in flood risk management from the FLOODsite project

106

Abstract. A framework of guiding recommendations for effective pre-flood and flood warning communications derived from the URFlood project (2nd ERA-Net CRUE Research Funding Initiative) from extensive quantitative and qualitative research in Finland, Ireland, Italy and Scotland is presented. Eleven case studies in fluvial, pluvial, coastal, residual and "new" flood risk locations were undertaken. The recommendations were developed from questionnaire surveys by exploring statistical correlations of actions and understandings of individuals in flood risk situations to low, moderate and high resilience groupings. Groupings were based on a conceptual relationship of self-assessed levels of awareness, preparedness and worry. Focus groups and structured interviews were used to discuss barriers in flood communications, explore implementation of the recommendations and to rank the recommendations in order of perceived importance. Results indicate that the information deficit model for flood communications that relies on the provision of more and better information to mitigate risk in flood-prone areas is insufficient, and that the communications process is very much multi-dimensional. The recommendations are aimed at addressing this complexity and their careful implementation is likely to improve the penetration of flood communications. The recommendations are applicable to other risks and are transferrable to jurisdictions beyond the project countries.

Section: Published By Copernicus Publications On Behalf Of the Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing flood resilience through improved risk communications

O’Sullivan

Bradford

Bonaiuto

et al. 2012

106

“…Especially in the framework of flood risk analyses with a natural scientific-technical background the differentiation between macro-, meso-and microscale approaches is also common (e.g. BWK, 2001;Gewalt et al, 1996;Meyer, 2005;Schmitke, 1995). However, within recent years these strict differentiations have resulted in controversial discussions and e.g.…”

Section: The Risk Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thereby, the general procedure comprises the methodological modules of hazard analysis, exposition analysis (identification of the elements at risk and the corresponding damage potentials), and consequence analysis (damage or loss estimation). However, while the term risk has been developed and adapted across a wide range of natural scientific and technical disciplines, the potential for misunderstanding exists (Samuels et al, 2009). Especially the distinction between hazard and risk is most important.…”

Section: The Risk Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the conceptual source-pathway-receptor-consequence (S-P-R-C) model (e.g. Samuels et al, 2009) became popular with respect to flood risk topics in recent years. Thereby, the S-P-R-C model follows the above mentioned methodological procedures: source -pathway (hazard analysis), receptor (exposition analysis), and consequence (consequence analysis).…”

Section: The Risk Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Risk-based damage potential and loss estimation of extreme flooding scenarios in the Austrian Federal Province of Tyrol

Huttenlau

Stötter

Stiefelmeyer

2010

Abstract. Within the last decades serious flooding events occurred in many parts of Europe and especially in 2005 the Austrian Federal Province of Tyrol was serious affected. These events in general and particularly the 2005 event have sensitised decision makers and the public. Beside discussions pertaining to protection goals and lessons learnt, the issue concerning potential consequences of extreme and severe flooding events has been raised. Additionally to the general interest of the public, decision makers of the insurance industry, public authorities, and responsible politicians are especially confronted with the question of possible consequences of extreme events. Answers thereof are necessary for the implementation of preventive appropriate risk management strategies. Thereby, property and liability losses reflect a large proportion of the direct tangible losses. These are of great interest for the insurance sector and can be understood as main indicators to interpret the severity of potential events. The natural scientific-technical risk analysis concept provides a predefined and structured framework to analyse the quantities of affected elements at risk, their corresponding damage potentials, and the potential losses. Generally, this risk concept framework follows the process steps hazard analysis, exposition analysis, and consequence analysis. Additionally to the conventional hazard analysis, the potential amount of endangered elements and their corresponding damage potentials were analysed and, thereupon, concrete losses were estimated. These took the specific vulnerability of the various individual elements at risk into consideration. The present flood risk analysis estimates firstly the general exposures of the risk indicators in the study area and secondly analyses the specific exposures and consequences of five extreme event scenarios. In order to precisely identify, localize, and characterize the relevant risk indicators of Correspondence to: M. Huttenlau (huttenlau@alps-gmbh.com) buildings, dwellings and inventory, vehicles, and individuals, a detailed geodatabase of the existing stock of elements and values was established on a single object level. Therefore, the localized and functional differentiated stock of elements was assessed monetarily on the basis of derived representative mean insurance values. Thus, well known difference factors between the analysis of the stock of elements and values on local and on regional scale could be reduced considerably. The spatial join of the results of the hazard analysis with the stock of elements and values enables the identification and quantification of the elements at risk and their corresponding damage potential. Thereupon, Extreme Scenario Losses (ESL) were analysed under consideration of different vulnerability approaches which describe the individual element's specific susceptibility. This results in scenario-specific ranges of ESL rather than in single values. The exposure analysis of the general endangerment in Tyrol identifies (i) 105 330 indiv...

“…Flood management measures are actions that are taken to reduce either the probability of flooding or the consequences of flooding or some combination of the two (Samuels et al, 2009). Pre-flood preparedness, as one of the components of holistic flood management (Kundzewicz and Takeuchi, 1999), involves decisions for future planning that could produce long-term environmental changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of flood management measures based on the concept of "retaining water in the landscape" in different European hydro-climatic regions

Salazar

Sabater

Komma

et al. 2012

Abstract. In this paper, we analyse the effectiveness of flood management measures based on the concept known as "retaining water in the landscape". The investigated measures include afforestation, micro-ponds and small-reservoirs. A comparative and model-based methodological approach has been developed and applied for three meso-scale catchments located in different European hydro-climatological regions: Poyo (184 km 2 ) in the Spanish Mediterranean, Upper Iller (954 km 2 ) in the German Alps and Kamp (621 km 2 ) in Northeast-Austria representing the Continental hydroclimate. This comparative analysis has found general similarities in spite of the particular differences among studied areas. In general terms, the flood reduction through the concept of "retaining water in the landscape" depends on the following factors: the storage capacity increase in the catchment resulting from such measures, the characteristics of the rainfall event, the antecedent soil moisture condition and the spatial distribution of such flood management measures in the catchment. In general, our study has shown that, this concept is effective for small and medium events, but almost negligible for the largest and less frequent floods: this holds true for all different hydro-climatic regions, and with different landuse, soils and morphological settings.