Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
flood risk management have been developing for
many years. Thus in the aftermath of the severe
Rhine River flooding of 1993 and 1995, the Dutch
government adopted a flood policy of 'more room
for rivers' with an emphasis on establishing new
storage and conveyance space. In the UK the Fu-
ture Flooding project (Evans et al. 2004) stimulated
the government's 'Making Space for Water' policy
(Defra 2005). In France there has been a series of
initiatives to emphasize risk management rather
than flood management, through an emphasis on
spatial planning (Pottier 2005). There has been
corresponding progressive evolution of floodplain
management in the USA (Interagency Floodplain
Management Review Committee 1994; Galloway
2005; Kahan 2006).
Compelling as the promise of modern integrat-
ed flood risk management certainly is, it brings
with it considerable complexity. The risk-based
approach involves analysing the likely impacts of
flooding under a very wide range of conditions and
the effect of a wide range of mitigation measures.
As the systems under consideration expand in
scope and timescale, so too does the number of
potential uncertainties and uncertain variables.
There are many potential components to a port-
folio of 'hard' and 'soft' flood risk management
measures, and they can be implemented in many
different sequences through time, so the decision
space is potentially huge. Communicating risks
and building the consensus that is necessary to
engage effectively with stakeholders in flood risk
management requires special aptitude for commu-
nication, facilitation and mediation (Faulkner
et al. 2007).
paths to those in England, some features of this
new approach are now becoming embedded in
flood risk management policy at the level of the
European Union (EU), rather than just nationally.
This is most notably the case with the European
Directive on the Assessment and Management of
Flood Risk, which entered into force on 26
November 2007. The Floods Directive (as it is
commonly known) sets out a framework for
delivering improved flood risk management in all
27 EU member states. The immediate impetus
behind the new Directive lies in the significant
flooding in central Europe in the preceding decade,
which led to pressure on the European Commis-
sion to initiate action on flooding (Samuels 2008),
but its gestation also coincidedwith rapidly evolv-
ing thinking about the management of flooding
and flood risk.
The Directive therefore covers all sources of
flooding (not just rivers, but coastal floods, urban
and groundwater floods). It requires planning at a
basin scale and has specific requirements for in-
ternational basins; and in all cases, the potential
impacts of climate change on the flood conditions
need to be considered. By late 2011 preliminary
flood risk assessments should be in place in all
European river basins, and by late 2013 there will
be flood riskmaps in all areas with significant risk.
Flood risk management plans are to be in place by
late 2015; all these are important developments.
These wide-ranging developments in flood risk
management in Europe are becoming increasingly
linked with broader activity in river basin man-
agement, driven by the Water Framework Direc-
tive (WFD). This came into force in late 2000 and
provides a basis for the management of the eco-
logical status of water bodies, and it includes flood
management although not as a primary objective.
The links between the WFD and the Floods Di-
rective are fully recognized in the Floods Directive
with the requirement to use the same boundaries
and administrative structures wherever possible.
The Floods Directive seeks a common Europe-
an denominator, and hence sets a minimum
framework for flood risk management, which is
to be interpreted in the context of each of the
member states where, in many cases, concepts of
Characteristics of Modern Flood
Risk Management
It has long been recognized that 'risk' is a central
consideration in providing appropriate flood
protection and latterly in flood risk management.
In the UK, the Waverley Report (Waverley
Committee 1954) following the devastating east
coast floods of 1953 recommended that flood de-
fence standards should reflect the land use of the
