Learning to live with rivers—the ICE's report to government

Abstract

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.

Earthquake-and-landslide events are associated with more fatalities than earthquakes alone

“…During an earthquake event, they may be more vulnerable to the shaking from earthquakes (e.g., because of poorer infrastructure) and could experience a higher proportion of fatalities while landslides also occur in these areas. Floodplains are often occupied by the wealthier population because of geographical access and proximity to rivers and estuaries as resources and centres of trade (Fleming 2002). This wealthier component of the population is likely to be less vulnerable, but is spatially located in an area where landslides are unlikely to occur.…”

Rethinking data‐driven decision support in flood risk management for a big data age

“…Statements about the “risk of flooding” can be interpreted as attempts to describe the probability of floods occurring, or reflect the distribution of potential consequences incurred as a result of flooding. The concept of FRM acknowledges that, given uncertainties about climate, weather, hydrological processes, and human interventions, it may not be possible to eliminate the risk of flooding entirely (Alfieri, Feyen, & Di Baldassarre, 2016; Fleming, 2002). Rather, risk management involves seeking an understanding of both the probability and consequences of flood events, and the residual risk that remains after accounting for mitigation measures (such as flood defences).…”

Assessing Po River Deltaic Vulnerability Using Earth Observation and a Bayesian Belief Network Model

“…Twelve variables are identified as relevant for simulating deltaic vulnerability scenarios, bearing in mind that delta systems are rapidly developing areas with changing landforms, sediment deposition rates, and vegetation cover. The physical, ecological, and social variables have been grouped in three broad classes representing the sources (driver factors-DFs), the pathway (land cover factors-LCFs), and the receptors (land use factors-LUFs) of the vulnerability [78,79] (respectively colored in red, green, and blue in Table 1).…”

“…Bayesian belief network (BBN) conceptual model and associated source-pathway-receptorconsequence (SPRC_chain applied to the vulnerability assessment[78,79]. BBN conceptual model…”

“…Bayesian belief network (BBN) conceptual model and associated source-pathway-receptorconsequence (SPRC_chain applied to the vulnerability assessment[78,79]. BBN conceptual model indicating that nodes driver factors (DFs), land cover factors (LCFs), and land use factors (LUFs) have a common effect on node V. This implies a conditional dependence between nodes DF, LCF, and LCF that are in effect competing to explain V[92].…”