Coping with Pluvial Floods by Private Households

Abstract

Pluvial floods have caused severe damage to urban areas in recent years. With a projected increase in extreme precipitation as well as an ongoing urbanization, pluvial flood damage is expected to increase in the future. Therefore, further insights, especially on the adverse consequences of pluvial floods and their mitigation, are needed. To gain more knowledge, empirical damage data from three different pluvial flood events in Germany were collected through computer-aided telephone interviews. Pluvial flood awareness as well as flood experience were found to be low before the respective flood events. The level of private precaution increased considerably after all events, but is mainly focused on measures that are easy to implement. Lower inundation depths, smaller potential losses as compared with fluvial floods, as well as the fact that pluvial flooding may occur everywhere, are expected to cause a shift in damage mitigation from precaution to emergency response. However, an effective implementation of emergency measures was constrained by a low dissemination of early warnings in the study areas. Further improvements of early warning systems including dissemination as well as a rise in pluvial flood preparedness are important to reduce future pluvial flood damage.

Structuring Climate Adaptation through Multiple Perspectives: Framework and Case Study on Flood Risk Management

“…In adapting to floods, many households resort to autonomous adaptation practices in the short term such as moving valuables to higher levels during flooding and in the longer term, in refurbishing houses and subscribing to insurance policies to minimise losses (e.g., Rozer et al [52]). Whereas local governments along with federal agencies resort to policy driven initiatives such as emergency responses in the short term and may invest in major infrastructure such as drainage systems and sea walls for the longer term [15].…”

New insights into flood warning reception and emergency response by affected parties

“…For shallow water levels, damage can be reduced easily by sealing the affected building or by moving contents higher, e.g. onto shelves or higher storeys (Rözer et al, 2016). If water levels are higher than expected, water barriers will be overtopped and the ingress of water can often not be prevented.…”

Water Quality Dynamics of Urban Water Bodies during Flooding in Can Tho City, Vietnam

“…The monitoring focused on different water systems in Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho, namely: (1): open water (canals, rivers, lakes); (2): flooded areas in the streets and (3): in sewers. The data reveals that the flood water in all of the urban drainage water systems are highly polluted based on assessment of the pathogen concentration.…”

“…Urban flooding, pollution of water bodies, depletion of ground water, lack of drinking water and improper sewage disposal are some of the water related problems encountered due to unplanned urbanisation. Increased imperviousness due to rapid urban densification, lack of capacity in storm drainage systems, upstream flooding and tidal effects (in delta cities) are regular causes of urban flooding [1]. Urban flooding increases the risk to life, property damage, and failure of critical infrastructure such as transport, communication and electricity networks as well as other intangible losses.…”