In the wake of the floods of 1998 and 2000 the Government invited the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) to carry out a technical review of flood-risk management in England and Wales and to consider the most appropriate approaches to flood-risk management for the 21st century. The findings of this Commission are published in the ICE report Learning to live with rivers. Further information on the Commission and its work is available at www.icenet.org.uk/presidential.htm. This paper provides an introduction to the need for such a review and the scope of the Commission's work. A summary of the findings of the Commission are presented along with key recommendations for improved flood-risk management in the future.

This paper reviews the technical aspects of flood risk management in England and Wales, taking into account modern issues of climate change, environmental impact, a catchment-based approach and experience from other countries in managing the risk of flooding. It represents a summary of the work contained in a major commission report by the Institution of Civil Engineers and reaches a number of conclusions, particularly that there are serious inadequacies in representing the dynamic effects of land use change, catchment process and climatic variability in flood assessment. The paper emphasises the need for a more strategic approach and highlights the fact that the UK should embrace the river basin modelling approach with more confidence than in the past.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract