Flood risk management: What are the main drivers of prevention?

Publications

Keywords: Flood risk, Spatial impacts assessment, Risk prevention

Author(s): Sébastien Foudi

Date: 2013-16-04

Issue: 2013-02

Keypoints

In a changing and unstable climate, climatic flood risk will increase: more intense and more extreme events would be more frequent. Higher climatic risk will turn into higher socio-economic risk, unless we implement appropriate adaption measures to prevent the risk.
Spatial hydro-economic approaches are widely used to estimate the risk and is a strong basis to elicit flood damage drivers to target prevention policy. Then, locally identified risks must give rise to prevention measures adapted to the local socio-economic, environmental and hydrological reality.
Flood warning alone cannot prevent the risk. Emergency and divulgation plans should enter in the equation of risk prevention in the institutional set of measures.
Infrastructural measures of defense have been an historical answer to manage the risk. In a changing climate their efficiency to alone protect goods and lifes has been questioned. Environmental measures are designed to recover natural dynamic of rivers. They can provide the flexibility required to adapt to uncertain environments.
Flood risk adaptation measures must involve both the private and public sectors to reduce vulnerability and exposure. With a higher climatic risk, financial insurance might become costlier. Self protection measures, designed to reduce the probability of suffering damages due to the flood can be promoted and supported by the institutional sector via diagnostic of vulnerability of the private sector.