Decision-making in the case of a flood-threat

Abstract (2017)

Authors

Lex Veerhuis HKV Lijn in Water
B. Kolen HKV Lijn in Water, Safety and Security Science - TPM
M. Kok HKV Lijn in Water, Hydraulic Structures and Flood Risk - CEG
D. Riedstra Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment
Research Group
Safety and Security Science (TPM) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2017 Lex Veerhuis, B. Kolen, M. Kok, D. Riedstra
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Published Date

2017

Language

English

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Faculty

Technology, Policy and Management

Department

Values Technology and Innovation

Research Group

Safety and Security Science

Abstract

Design-criteria for flood-defences have a legal character in the Netherlands. Formerly, these flood protection standards were based on design-waterlevels, where a flood defence was implicitly supposed not to fail below this waterlevel. Since knowledge regarding dike-failure improved, a new risk approach has been developed based on a social cost-benefit analysis which addresses a monetary value to a (prevented) fatality. Also, loss of life is part of the risk analysis. The main improvement of the new approach is the explicit inclusion of failure probabilities in flood-risk calculations. A recent floodrisk study showed the risk of flooding for some regions in the Netherlands is larger than previously thought [Rijkswaterstaat 2015].