Floods From Defence To Management

Floods are natural events, but when they impact on human environments, they turn into disasters which disrupt society. The last decades have seen an alarming increase in the number of major floods and associated damage on every continent. The impact is more severe due to population growth and settlement in flood prone areas, climate change and disr

CD-ROM contains conference papers.

Approaches to avoid loss of life and limit disruption and damage from flooding have changed significantly in recent years. Worldwide, there has been a move from a strategy of flood defence to one of flood risk management. Flood risk management includes flood prevention using hard defences, where appropriate, but also requires that society learns to live with floods and that stakeholders living in flood prone areas develop coping strategies to increase their resilience to flood impacts when these occur. This change in approach represents a paradigm shift which stems from the realisation that continuing to strengthen and extend conventional flood defences is unsustainable economically, environmentally, and in terms of social equity. Flood risk management recognises that a sustainable approach must rest on integrated measures that reduce not only the probability of flooding, but also the consequences. This is essential as increases in the probability of inundation are inevitable in many areas of the world due to climate change, while socio-economic development will lead to spiralling increases in the consequences of flooding unless land use in floodplains is carefully planned. Flood Risk Science and Management provides an extensive and comprehensive synthesis of current research in flood management; providing a multi-disciplinary reference text covering a wide range of flood management topics. Its targeted readership is the international research community (from research students through to senior staff) and flood management professionals, such as engineers, planners, government officials and those with flood management responsibility in the public sector. By using the concept of case study chapters, international coverage is given to the topic, ensuring a world-wide relevance.

Our changing climate and more extreme weather events have dramatically increased the number and severity of floods across the world. Demonstrating the diversity of global flood risk management (FRM), this volume covers a range of topics including planning and policy, risk governance and communication, forecasting and warning, and economics. Through short case studies, the range of international examples from North America, Europe, Asia and Africa provide analysis of FRM efforts, processes and issues from human, governance and policy implementation perspectives. Written by an international set of authors, this collection of chapters and case studies will allow the reader to see how floods and flood risk management is experienced in different regions of the world. The way in which institutions manage flood risk is discussed, introducing the notions of realities and social constructions when it comes to risk management. The book will be of great interest to students and professionals of flood, coastal, river and natural hazard management, as well as risk analysis and insurance, demonstrating multiple academic frameworks of analysis and their utility and drawbacks when applied to real-life FRM contexts.

Floods cause distress and damage wherever and whenever they happen. Flooding from rivers, estuaries and the sea threatens many millions of people worldwide and economic and insurance losses from flooding have increased significantly since 1990. Based on the work of leading researchers, this book provides an overview of advances in this important subject. It covers all aspects of flood risk including the causes of floods; their impacts on people, property and the environment; and portfolios of risk management measurement. Additional topics include climate change, estimation of extremes, flash floods, flood forecasting and warning, inundation modeling, systems analysis, uncertainty, international programs, and flood defense infrastructure and assets. The book also examines environmental, human, and social impacts; vulnerability and resilience; risk sharing; and civil contingency planning and emergency management.

In recent years there have been a number of catastrophic floods that have resulted in a tragic loss of life. These natural disasters highlight the need to further understand the occurrence phenomena, to improve forecasting techniques, and to develop procedures and contingency plans to minimise the flood impact. This volume contains contributions from the 3rd International Conference on Floods and Flood Management held in Florence in November 1992. The volume is timely and provides an important overview for engineers, scientists, managers and researchers of the latest developments in technology, analysis and management.

Annotation This ICE publication is the definitive practical handbook on design and maintainance of flood defences, providing a coherent and focused reference for best practice.

This new handbook brings together various views and experiences of the impacts of flooding and its management in Africa, Asia and Latin America by drawing from traditional and modern approaches adopted by communities, homeowners, academics, project managers, institutions and policy makers. Key stakeholders provide insights and perspectives on flood hazards, flood impacts, flood control and adaptation strategies across these regions. The inclusion of policy makers, emergency responders, leaders of key organizations and managers of flood defence projects makes this volume a unique addition to the flood management literature. The chapters are organized to reveal various impacts and challenges associated with the management of flooding, including response and recovery. The chapter contributions bring together the different impacts of flooding and propose various mitigation approaches. They describe procedures for managing flooding and reducing the impacts from the perspectives of policy makers, environmental planners and restorers of flood-affected communities. Also, the book considers some of the related aspects including land use, waste management, drainage systems, security challenges, urban planning and development and their contributions to flooding. The book's primary target is experienced researchers and practitioners in flood risk management. It would also serve as a key text for postgraduate students studying related programmes. Inhabitants of flood prone communities in such developing countries will also find the text an important resource for guidance and understanding. This multi-disciplinary book represents a valuable contribution for a wide range of professionals (e.g. in engineering, built environment, health, retail, etc) who are interested in flood control and management and/or faced with flood-related challenges in the course of their work.