Principles of Floodplain Management

Thomas, Frank H.

doi:10.1007/978-94-011-0401-2_16

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…One is the division into hard (physical, including structural) and soft (non-physical, non-structural) means. Another division of strategies for flood protection and management is: modification of susceptibility to flood damage, modification of floodwaters, and modification of impact of flooding (Thomas, 1995).…”

Section: Building Protection Strategies Flood Preparednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coping with Hydrological Extremes

Kundzewicz

Kaczmarek

2000

Water International

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Coping with hydrological extremes, floods, and droughts has been a major concern since the dawn of human civilization. Freshwater, a necessary condition of life and a raw material used in very high volumes in virtually every human activity, is becoming increasingly scarce. Water use has risen considerably in the last hundred years at a pace exceeding the population growth. Therefore, societies are increasingly vulnerable to droughts and water deficits. Although the 21st century is heralded as the age of water scarcity, flood losses continue to grow. Increasing global vulnerability results to a large extent from soaring anthropopressure: settlements in hazardous locations and adverse land use changes. Deforestation and urbanization lead to reduction of the storage volume and higher values of runoff coefficient. In more wealthy countries, it is the material flood losses that continue to grow, while the number of fatalities goes down. Advanced flood preparedness systems can save lives and reduce human suffering. In some regions of the world, long-term forecasts (e.g., ENSO) help improve the preparedness for hydrological extremes, both floods and droughts, and hopefully will even more so in the future. Scenarios for future climate indicate the possibility of sharpening the extremes and changes of their seasonality. For instance, in Western Scotland and Norway, an increase of winter floods has already been observed. According to recent assessments, there is a growing risk of summer droughts in the Mediterranean region: less precipitation in summer and higher temperature will coincide, causing higher evapotranspiration and less runoff. Fighting with floods and droughts has not been quite successful. Humans have to get used to the fact that extreme hydrological events are natural phenomena that will continue to occur. While doing ones best to improve the preparedness systems, it is necessary to learn to live with hydrological extremes.

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Section: Building Protection Strategies Flood Preparednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coping with Hydrological Extremes

Kundzewicz

Kaczmarek

2000

Water International

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“…Flood‐proofing a structure involves the use of water‐tight seals, water‐resistant materials, water‐tight joints, improving the strength of walls against hydrostatic presses, sealants that are impervious to water, and water‐tight closures for doors, windows, and other openings. ( 27,28 ) Such measures have proven to be highly successful for preventing contact with or entry of flood waters and reducing damages from any water that does permeate the structure.…”

Section: Linking Loss Prevention With Insurance and Catastrophe Bondsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Financial Management of Catastrophic Flood Risks in Emerging‐Economy Countries

Kunreuther¹,

Linnerooth-Bayer²

2003

Risk Analysis

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This article examines the potential of pre-and post-disaster instruments for funding disaster response and recovery and for creating incentives for flood loss mitigation in countries with emerging or transition economies. As a concrete case, we discuss the disaster recovery arrangements following the 1997 flood disaster in Poland. We examine the advantages and limitations of hedging instruments, which are instruments for transferring the risk to investors either through insurance or capital market-based securities. We compare these mechanisms with financing instruments, whereby the government sets aside funds prior to a disaster or taps its own funding sources after the event occurs. We show how hedging instruments can be designed to create incentives for the mitigation of damage to public infrastructure using the flood proofing of a water-treatment plant on the hypothetical Topping River as an illustrative example. We conclude that hedging instruments can be an attractive alternative to financing instruments that have been traditionally used in the poorer, emerging-economy countries to fund disaster recovery. Since very poor countries are likely to have difficulty paying the price of protection prior to a disaster, we suggest that international lending institutions consider innovations for subsidizing these payments.

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“…This decision has largely influenced flood protection policy in the USA and was followed worldwide for more than a century, leading to transformation of rivers and reduction of wetlands. Thomas (1995) noted that 54% of the wetlands area in the USA have been drained, primarily for agricultural use. In 1936, the US federal government assumed primary responsibility for flood damage reduction across the nation and over the next 40 years embarked on a multi-billion US$ programme of structural defences: levees, floodwalls, floodways, reservoirs and channels (Galloway, 1999).…”

Section: Retrospective Lookmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There exists a roster of strategies for reducing flood losses by flood protection and management, shown in Table 2 together with examples of particular activities. The classification of strategies and tools for flood plain management by Thomas (1995) was used as the point of departure, subject to modification by the author.…”

Section: Present Policies In a Sustainability Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flood protection—sustainability Issues

Kundzewicz

1999

Hydrological Sciences Journal

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There has been much recent emphasis on sustainable development of water resources in that the needs of the present generation are fulfilled without compromising future generations to meet their needs. Also, systems of flood protection and management are being increasingly considered in the context of sustainable development. Destructive floods have jeopardized settlements located near rivers since the dawn of human history. Now, the global flood losses have grown worldwide to the level of billions of US dollars per year. The issue of climate variability and change and the possibility of their adverse impacts on the severity and frequency of flooding, introduces an additional uncertainty to difficult sustainability issues. There are several examples of technical infrastructure related to flood protection, which are being criticized in the context of sustainable development because they close options for future generations and introduce unacceptable disturbances in ecosystems. Large structural flood defences like dams, storage reservoirs and embankments are often listed in this category. The means of coping with floods are looked at in the sustainability context. A change of paradigm is needed, as a flood protection system guaranteeing complete safety is an illusion. It is necessary to be aware of the possibility of floods, that is the attitude: "living with floods" seems more sustainable than a hopeless striving to "combat floods". La durabilité de la protection contre les inondations Résumé On s'est beaucoup intéressé ces dernières années à un développement durable de ressources en eau conçu de telle sorte que la satisfaction des besoins d'aujourd'hui ne compromette pas celle de demain. De même on conçoit de plus en plus les systèmes de gestion et de protection contre les inondations dans une optique de développement durable. Les inondations destructrices ont menacé les établissements humains depuis l'aube des temps. A présent, les dommages causés par les inondations dans le monde entier atteignent des milliards de dollars américains. Le problème de la variabilité et de la modification du climat et l'éventualité de leur répercussion sur la fréquence et l'ampleur des inondations, apporte un degré supplémentaire d'incertitude à des problèmes de durabilité déjà difficiles. On peut citer de nombreux exemples d'aménagements de protection contre les inondations qui ont été critiqués du point de vue du développement durable car ils interdisaient certaines possibilités aux générations futures et qu'ils perturbaient les écosystèmes de façon inacceptable. Les grands aménagement de lutte contre les inondations, tels que barrages, réservoirs et endiguements ont souvent été incriminés. Les moyens d'affronter les inondations doivent être pris en considération dans une optique de durabilité et il est nécessaire de changer de philosophie car un système garantissant une protection absolue est illusoire. Il faut être conscient de la possibilité d'inondations, ce qui signifie qu'il vaut mieux "vivre avec les inondations" que de s'é...

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Principles of Floodplain Management

Cited by 5 publications

References 1 publication

Coping with Hydrological Extremes

Coping with Hydrological Extremes

The Financial Management of Catastrophic Flood Risks in Emerging‐Economy Countries

Flood protection—sustainability Issues

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