Development of a preliminary-risk-based flood management approach to address the spatiotemporal distribution of risk under the kaldor–hicks compensation principle

All over the world, probability-based flood protection designs are the ones most commonly used. Different return-period design floods are standard criteria for designing structural measures. Recently, risk-based flood management has received a significant appraisal, but the fixed return period is still the de facto standard for flood...

Defend or raise? Optimising flood risk reduction strategies

Flood risk reduction can be provided by interventions such as raising land or constructing flood defences. This paper introduces an approach to optimise the selection of risk reduction strategies. It expands existing economic optimization approaches for flood defences, by introducing (largely) analytical formulations to include the effects of...

How to evaluate a monitoring system for adaptive policies: criteria for signposts selection and their model-based evaluation

Adaptive policies have emerged as a valuable strategy for dealing with uncertainties by recognising the capacity of systems to adapt over time to new circumstances and surprises. The efficacy of adaptive policies hinges on detecting on-going change and ensuring that actions are indeed taken if and when necessary. This is operationalised by...

An interdisciplinary approach to urban reconstruction after the 2011 Tsunami

Students of hydraulic engineering, geotechnical engineering, transport infrastructure, urban drainage engineering and urbanism studied the recovery of the city of Yuriage using the goal integration method. Much can be learned from the bold approach of the Japanese to disaster reconstruction and fighting shrinkage in regional spatial planning.

Vernacular architecture inspires flood-proof housing

Urbanisation in Southeast Asia has to cope with land subsidence, rain floods, clogged rivers, storm surges and typhoons. On particular locations, like in the deserted fish ponds in the Manila Bay Area in the Philippines, floating housing can be an attractive building style. PhD researcher Pieter Ham and Finch Floating Homes are inspired by...

Estimating the impacts of urban growth on future flood risk: A comparative study

The unprecedented growth of cities has a significant impact on future flood risk that might exceed the impacts of climate change in many metropolitan areas across the world. Although the effects of urbanisation on flood risk are well understood, assessments that include spatially explicit future growth projections are limited. This comparative...

Water Management on the Island of IJsselmonde 1000 to 1953: Polycentric Governance, Adaptation, and Petrification

One of the central tenets of adaptive management is polycentric governance. Yet, despite the popularity of the concept, few detailed case studies of polycentric governance systems exist. In this paper, we aim to partly fill this gap. We describe water management between the years 1000 and 1953 on the Dutch island of IJsselmonde in the...

Issues and challenges in flood risk management: Editorial for the special issue on flood risk management

Recent flood-related disasters (Japan, Thailand, US, Australia) emphasize the need for an effective management of flood risks. As an introduction to this special issue, this editorial summarizes some of the key challenges in the field. Flood risk management needs to recognize the interconnections between infrastructures, economic systems and the...

Legitimation of flood management

The legitimacy of a governing system is at risk when actors leave projects angry, disappointed or disillusioned. Unfortunately this is a common phenomenon. Legitimacy is defined as the reputation of a governing system that it is justifiable and (therefore) authoritative. It is generally assumed that when legitimacy is lacking implementing and...

Learning from Collaborative Research in Water Management Practice

In order to deal with complex water management problems, it is increasingly claimed that researchers should collaborate with authorities and other stakeholders. According to the literature, such collaboration can enhance cognitive learning about the issues at stake, but there is little empirical evidence for this. In this paper, we assess...

A programme management approach for supporting a transition to integrated flood management in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands and many other developed countries, flood management is transitioning from sectoral engineering approaches to more integrated approaches. The 2.3 billion Euro Room for the River programme plays an important role in this transition, because it is the first large scale infrastructure programme in the Netherlands that breaks with...

Risk-based planning and optimization of flood management measures in developing countries: Case Pakistan

About 95-97% of all deaths and a significant part of the economic losses caused by floods occur in developing countries. Despite the resources spent on different measures, flood management arrangements in developing countries are still unable to deliver satisfactory results. The objective of this thesis is ‘to maximize land-use benefits and...

Analysis of pluvial flood damage based on data from insurance companies in the Netherlands

Insurance databases form a promising data source that can be used to improve pluvial flood damage estimations. This paper describes the key characteristics of an insurance database on water related damages to private buildings and content in the Netherlands that has been made available for research. The paper presents preliminary results of a...

Does collaboration enhance learning?The challenge of learning from collaborative water management research

Does collaboration between researchers and other stakeholders enhance mutual cognitive learning?  To answer this question, this thesis analyzes two research processes concerning future flood management in the Lower Rhine basin and groundwater management in and around Delft. The  results suggest that only intensive collaboration enhances learning...

The Roach and Crouch Flood Management Strategy: A Case Study for the Economic Assessment and Valuation of Multifunctional Flood Management Projects

The main focus of this report is to describe the economic appraisal techniques applied to the RCFMS. The majority of the discussions on policies and procedures are specific to England. An overview of the differing funding processes and procedures in the rest of the UK (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) is provided in Appendix A. In addition,...

Modelling Floodplain Biogeomorphology

Understanding the interactions between the ecosystem and the morphology of river floodplains, i.e. floodplain biogeomorphology, is becoming increasingly important in view of modern river management and climate change. There is a need for predictive models for the natural response of river floodplains to hydraulic measures and river...