Reducing Vulnerability Of Buildings To Flood Damage

This book educates and introduce readers to the ways in which we can adapt to the threat of flooding throughout the built and natural environment. It offers advice on how to better understand the nature of flood risk, whilst highlighting the key approaches and principles necessary for developing community and property-level flood resilience. As a comprehensive and practical manual, this book includes richly illustrated diagrams on a variety of concepts and strategies to use when designing for flood resilience. It is vital resource for anyone looking to adapt to the threat of flood risk. Highly practical handbook for architects, students, engineers, urban planners and other built environment professionals Richly illustrated with practical examples and case studies Draws on research with the Cabinet Office, Environment Agency & Local Community as well as input from academic and industry experts, homeowners and residents of communities at risk of flooding.

Flooding is a global phenomenon that claims countless lives worldwide each year. Beginning in 2008 at the Institution of Civil Engineers in London this book contains papers presented at the 5th conference in the successful series on Flood Recovery, Innovation and Response. When flooding occurs in populated areas, it can cause substantial damage to property as well as threatening human life. Apart from the physical damage to buildings, contents and loss of life, which are the most obvious impacts of floods upon households, indirect losses are often overlooked. These indirect and intangible impacts are generally associated with disruption to normal life as well as longer term health issues including stress related illness. In many parts of the developing world, flooding can represent a major barrier to the alleviation of poverty as vulnerable communities are often exposed to sudden and life threatening events. How we respond and adapt to the challenges of flooding is key to developing our long term resilience. This book provides a platform for the work of researchers, academics and practitioners actively involved in improving our understanding of flood events and our approaches to response, recovery and resilience. A wide range of technical and management topics related to flooding and its impact are included: Flood management; Flood warning; Flood risk adaptation Flood protection - products and processes; Flood risk modelling; Flood forecasting; Flood vulnerability; Urban flood modelling; Flood risk assessment and recovery; Climate change impact; Socio and economic impact; Flood case studies; Flood damage assessment; Storm water control.

This book provides an authoritative insight on the Loss and Damage discourse by highlighting state-of-the-art research and policy linked to this discourse and articulating its multiple concepts, principles and methods. Written by leading researchers and practitioners, it identifies practical and evidence-based policy options to inform the discourse and climate negotiations. With climate-related risks on the rise and impacts being felt around the globe has come the recognition that climate mitigation and adaptation may not be enough to manage the effects from anthropogenic climate change. This recognition led to the creation of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage in 2013, a climate policy mechanism dedicated to dealing with climate-related effects in highly vulnerable countries that face severe constraints and limits to adaptation. Endorsed in 2015 by the Paris Agreement and effectively considered a third pillar of international climate policy, debate and research on Loss and Damage continues to gain enormous traction. Yet, concepts, methods and tools as well as directions for policy and implementation have remained contested and vague. Suitable for researchers, policy-advisors, practitioners and the interested public, the book furthermore: • discusses the political, legal, economic and institutional dimensions of the issue• highlights normative questions central to the discourse • provides a focus on climate risks and climate risk management. • presents salient case studies from around the world.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage to the coast along the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in an unprecedented relief, recovery, and reconstruction effort. This reconstruction presents a unique opportunity to rebuild the communities and public infrastructure using the latest hazard mitigation techniques proven to be more protective of lives and property. Critical facilities comprise all public and private facilities deemed by a community to be essential for the delivery of vital services, protection of special populations, and the provision of other services of importance for that community. This manual concentrates on a smaller group of facilities that are crucial for protecting the health and safety of the population: health care, educational, and emergency response facilities. The Design Guide for Improving Critical Facility Safety from Flooding and High Winds (FEMA 543) was developed with the support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region IV in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This manual recommends incorporating hazard mitigation measures into all stages and at all levels of critical facility planning and design, for both new construction and the reconstruction and rehabilitation of existing facilities. It provides building professionals and decision makers with information and guidelines for implementing a variety of mitigation measures to reduce the vulnerability to damage and disruption of operations during severe flooding and high-wind events. The underlying theme of this manual is that by building more robust critical facilities that will remain operational during and after a major disaster, people's lives and the community's vitality can be better preserved and protected. The poor performance of many critical facilities in the affected areas was not unique to Hurricane Katrina. It was observed in numerous hurricanes dating back more than three decades. Several reasons may explain this kind of performance. In many cases the damaged facilities were quite old and were constructed well before the introduction of modern codes and standards. Some of the older facilities were damaged because building components had deteriorated as a result of inadequate maintenance. Many fa¬cilities occupy unsuitable buildings that were never intended for this type of use. Some newer facilities suffered damage as a result of deficiencies in design and construction or the application of inappropriate design criteria and standards. The primary objective of this manual is to assist the building design community and local officials and decision makers in adopting and implementing sound mitigation measures that will decrease the vulnerability of critical facilities to major disasters. The goals of this manual are to: Present and recommend the use of building design features and building materials and methods that can improve the performance of critical facilities in hazard-prone areas during and after flooding and high-wind events. m Introduce and provide guidelines for implementing flooding and high-wind mitigation best practices into the process of design, construction, and operation and maintenance of critical facilities; and To aid in the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, this manual presents an overview of the principal planning and design considerations for improving the performance of critical facilities during, and in the aftermath of, flooding and high-wind events. It provides design guidance and practical recommendations for protecting critical facilities and their occupants against these natural hazards. It presents incremental approaches that can be implemented over time to decrease the vulnerability of buildings, but emphasizes the importance of incorporating the requirements for mitigation against flooding and high winds into the planning and design of critical facilities from the very beginning of the process.

First published in 2008.

Initial priorities for U.S. participation in the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, declared by the United Nations, are contained in this volume. It focuses on seven issues: hazard and risk assessment; awareness and education; mitigation; preparedness for emergency response; recovery and reconstruction; prediction and warning; learning from disasters; and U.S. participation internationally. The committee presents its philosophy of calls for broad public and private participation to reduce the toll of disasters.

Across Europe, land is constantly the subject of enormous and widely varied pressures. The land we have is shrinking in area due to numerous reasons, including those that are directly related to climate change and migration. In fact all disciplines that have responsibilities for the husbandry use, management, and administration of the land are forced to address the problems of how to plan and how to utilise this increasingly valuable resource. The papers contained within this book emerge from two symposia held in 2014 and 2015, which now have been arranged along four general themes reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of the disciplines concerned with land. The first part is dedicated to the interpretation of key terms in their context and the dissimilar conceptual approaches in the governance of different states. It is followed by papers that identify the process of decision-taking: how to organize and co-operate. One large section addresses the identification of land pattern changes and the reason for it. The papers in the final cluster deal with the general theme of strategies and measures used to steer future evolution in land policies. The publication addresses various needs that have to be balanced: the tasks of living space in the face of societal and demographic changes, infrastructure supply, challenges of an increasingly urbanised region, food production, ‘green energy’, natural hazards, habitats and cultural landscapes protection.