A review of damage-reducing measures to manage fluvial flood risks in a changing climate

Abstract

Damage due to floods has increased during the last few decades, and further increases are expected in several regions due to climate change and a possibly growing vulnerability. To address the projected increase in flood risk, a combination of structural and non-structural flood risk mitigation measures is considered as a promising adaptation strategy. Such a combination takes into account that flood defence systems may fail, and prepares for unexpected crisis situations via land-use planning and private flood damage reduction e.g. via building precautionary measures. Private measures like shielding with water shutters or sand bags, building fortification or safeguarding of hazardous substances are often voluntary; they demand self-dependent action by people or companies at risk. It is believed that these measures are especially effective in areas with frequent flood events and low flood water levels, but some types of measures showed a significant damagereducing effect also during extreme flood events. This overview presents information about different damage-reducing measures, their state of implementation and the damage reducing effects of such measures, particularly reporting results of the project "Climate proof flood risk management" of the Dutch Knowledge for Climate (KFC) program.

Structuring Climate Adaptation through Multiple Perspectives: Framework and Case Study on Flood Risk Management

“…An analysis of the current published adaptation plans through review of the literature (e.g., [3,[12][13][14][15][16]37,42,57]) provided the insights and requirements to define the individual steps in structuring an adaptation problem. Based on these findings a framework has been developed to enable the structuring of climate adaptation challenges though taking a multiple perspective.…”

“…Climate adaptation is frequently being examined through various singular perspectives-i.e., based on domain specific points of view or a particular attitude or way of looking at something-such as societal, engineering, planning, economics or vulnerability reduction perspectives [12][13][14][15][16]. Such singularity of perspective may be an example of Kant's "Anschauung" [17] where the means of human acquisition or receptivity of knowledge is via what is presumed to be intuition, 'normal' thinking.…”

“…Notwithstanding, there are also examples of studies taking a dual perspective such as those considering socio with other domains such as technical, economic, cultural or equityinclusiveness [16,[18][19][20]. Eriksen, et al [21] argue that there are multiple perspectives to climate adaptation and present the "Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" IPCC [22] as evidence.…”

Preface: Flood-risk analysis and integrated management

“…Moreover, there is an increasing demand for risk assessments that evaluate insights into hazards, consequences and vulnerabilities in an integrated way Thieken et al, 2014;Merz et al, 2014). Also, a good understanding of perceptual and behavioural aspects, possibly leading to higher or lower exposure and vulnerabilities, is needed for a comprehensive and sustainable risk management (Ludy and Kon-dolf, 2012;Bubeck et al, 2012Bubeck et al, , 2013Kreibich et al, 2011Kreibich et al, , 2015Collenteur et al, 2014;Holub et al, 2011;Di Baldassarre et al, 2013). Further complexity is added by the (projected) changes in climate, exposure and vulnerability (Merz et al, 2014;Bubeck et al, 2011;Jongman et al, 2015).…”

When is it beneficial for insurers to engage in climate change adaptation – a cross country comparison

“…Flood risk management today relies on a mix of structural and non-structural measures (Fuchs et al, 2017;Kreibich et al, 2015;Krysanova et al, 2008;Kubal et al, 2009). categorized adaptation measures in 9 different categories: 1) infrastructure/large-scale structural adaptation measures, 2) hazard modification, 3) decentralized small-scale adaptation measures, 4) prior-to-event communication and education measures including knowledge sharing, 5) monitoring and early warning, 6) emergency response, 7) risk 15 management planning including land-use planning and building codes, 8) risk transfer and 9) financial incentives.…”