Maps give a more direct and stronger impression of the spatial distribution of the flood risk than other forms of presentation (verbal description, diagrams). Thus, maps are valuable for presenting and assessing the local flood situation, and they provide information for many applications in flood defence and disaster management. In Europe, there are no standardised nomenclature or agreed practices for flood mapping. The paper reviews the concepts of flood risk mapping at the local scale, discusses the challenges and proposes a systematic presentation of flood hazards, vulnerabilities and flood risks, spanning from flood danger maps to damage risk maps

Abstract.The need for an efficient use of limited resources fosters the application of risk-oriented design in flood mitigation. Flood defence measures reduce future damage. Traditionally, this benefit is quantified via the expected annual damage. We analyse the contribution of "high probability/low damage" floods versus the contribution of "low probability/high damage" events to the expected annual damage. For three case studies, i.e. actual flood situations in floodprone communities in Germany, it is shown that the expected annual damage is dominated by "high probability/low damage" events. Extreme events play a minor role, even though they cause high damage. Using typical values for flood frequency behaviour, flood plain morphology, distribution of assets and vulnerability, it is shown that this also holds for the general case of river floods in Germany. This result is compared to the significance of extreme events in the public perception. "Low probability/high damage" events are more important in the societal view than it is expressed by the expected annual damage. We conclude that the expected annual damage should be used with care since it is not in agreement with societal priorities. Further, risk aversion functions that penalise events with disastrous consequences are introduced in the appraisal of risk mitigation options. It is shown that risk aversion may have substantial implications for decisionmaking. Different flood mitigation decisions are probable, when risk aversion is taken into account.

Abstract. Flood risk analysis and management plans mostly neglect groundwater flooding, i.e. high groundwater levels. However, rising groundwater may cause considerable damage to buildings and infrastructure. To improve the knowledge about groundwater flooding and support risk management, a survey was undertaken in the city of Dresden (Saxony, Germany), resulting in 605 completed interviews with private households endangered by high groundwater levels. The reported relatively low flood impact and damage of groundwater floods in comparison with mixed floods was reflected by its scarce perception: Hardly anybody thinks about the risk of groundwater flooding. The interviewees thought that public authorities and not themselves, should be mainly responsible for preparedness and emergency response. Up to now, people do not include groundwater risk in their decision processes on self protection. The implementation of precautionary measures does not differ between households with groundwater or with mixed flood experience. However, less households undertake emergency measures when expecting a groundwater flood only. The state of preparedness should be further improved via an intensified risk communication about groundwater flooding by the authorities. Conditions to reach the endangered population are good, since 70% of the interviewed people are willing to inform themselves about groundwater floods. Recommendations for an improved risk communication are given.

Abstract.The project "Risk Map Germany" at the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM) aims at visualizing hazards, vulnerabilities and risks associated with natural and man made hazards. CEDIM as an interdisciplinary project unified various expertise like earthquake, storm and flood disaster research. Our aim was to visualize the manifold data exploration in thematic maps. The implemented Web-GIS solution "CEDIM Risk Explorer" represents the map visualizations of the different risk research. This Web-GIS integrates results from interdisciplinary work as maps of hazard, vulnerability and risk in one application and offers therefore new cognitions to the user by enabling visual comparisons. The present paper starts with a project introduction and a literature review of distributed GIS environments. Further the methods of map realization and visualization in the selected technical solution is worked out. Finally, the conclusions give the perspectives for future developments to the "CEDIM Risk Explorer".

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