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...

Framework for assessing the performance of flood adaptation innovations using a risk-based approach

The application of risk-based approaches for the design of flood infrastructure has become increasingly common in flood management. This approach, based on risk reduction and reliability, is used to assess the performance of conventional interventions (e.g., flood defences and dams) and to support decisions regarding their implementation....

Quantifying the failure probability of a canal levee

Polders in the Netherlands are protected from flooding by flood defence systems along main water bodies such as rivers, lakes or the sea. Inside polders, canal levees provide protection from smaller water bodies. Canal levees are mainly earthen levees along drainage canals that drain excess water from polders to the main water bodies. The...

Development of a Standard Testing Framework for Evaluating Temporary Flood Barriers

Floods are the costliest and deadliest weather-related disaster globally. With higher population density in flood prone areas, increased urban development, and projected climate impacts, the frequency and severity of flooding in Europe is predicted to rise. While permanent flood defences have been shown to be more economically effective and...

Hurricane Harvey Report: A fact-finding effort in the direct aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in the Greater Houston Region

On August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of approximately 200 km/hour. Harvey caused severe damages in coastal Texas due to extreme winds and storm surge, but will go down in history for record-setting rainfall totals and flood-related damages. Across large...

Flood Risk Regional Flood Defences: Technical report

Historically the Netherlands have always had to deal with the threat of flooding, both from the rivers and the sea as well as from heavy rainfall. The country consists of a large amount of polders, which are low lying areas of land protected from flooding by embankments. These polders require an extensive water storage and drainage system to...

Reconnaissance Level Studies on a Storm Surge Barrier for Flood Risk Reduction in the Houston-Galveston Bay

The Houston - Galveston area is at significant risk from hurricane induced storm surges. This paper summarizes ongoing studies on flood risk reduction for the region. Firstly, based on a simplified probabilistic hurricane surge model , the return periods of surges within the bay have been estimated. This model framework can be used to assess the...

Effectiveness and reliability of emergency measures for flood prevention

Floods in the summer of 2013 in Central Europe demonstrated once again that floods account for a large part of damage and loss of life caused by natural disasters. During flood threats emergency measures, such as sand bags and big bags, are often applied to strengthen the flood defences and attempt to prevent breaches. Although these measures...

Risk approach to land reclamation: Feasibility of a polder terminal

New ports are mostly constructed on low lying coastal areas or shallow coastal waters. The quay wall and terminal yard are raised to a level well above mean sea level to assure flood safety. The resulting ‘convention-al terminal’ requires large volumes of fill material often dredged from the sea, which is costly. The terminal yard of a ‘polder...

Report Galveston Bay: Flood Risk Reduction Barrier

The objective of this study is to provide suitable candidate solutions for a storm surge barrier in the Bolivar Roads as part of the Ike Dike system and provide recommendations for further research.

Risk based design of land reclamation and the feasibility of the polder terminal

New ports are mostly constructed on low lying coastal areas or in shallow coastal waters. The quay wall and terminal yard are raised to a level well above mean sea level to assure flood safety. The resulting ‘conventional terminal’ requires large volumes of good quality fill material often dredged from the sea, which is costly. The alternative...

Polder Terminal: A risk based design

New container ports are mostly constructed on low lying coastal areas or in shallow coastal waters. The quay wall and terminal yard are then raised to a level well above mean sea level to insure safety against inundation. The resulting ‘conventional terminal’ requires large volumes of good quality fill material often dredged from the sea which...