Rethinking flood risk communication

Flooding is a serious hazard across Europe, with over 200 major floods documented in the last two decades. Over this period, flood management has evolved, with a greater responsibility now placed on at-risk communities to understand their risk and take protective action to develop flood resilience. Consequently, communicating flood risk has become an increasingly central part of developing flood resilience. However, research suggests that current risk communications have not resulted in the intended increase in awareness, or behavioural change. This paper explores how current risk communications are used by those at risk, what information users desire and how best this should be presented. We explore these questions through a multi-method participatory experiment, working together with a competency group of local participants in the town of Corbridge, Northumberland, the UK. Our research demonstrates that current risk communications fail to meet user needs for information in the period before a flood event, leaving users unsure of what will happen, or how best to respond. We show that participants want information on when and how a flooding may occur (flood dynamics), so that they can understand their risk and feel in control of their decisions on how to respond. We also present four prototypes which translate these information needs into new approaches to communicating flood risk. Developed by the research participants, these proposals meet their information needs, increase their flood literacy and develop their response capacity. The findings of the research have implications for how we design and develop future flood communications, but also for how we envisage the role of flood communications in developing resilience at a community level.     

水库控制流域汛期分期的有效聚类分析

受诸多因素影响的水库汛期分期其实质是一个聚类数目未确知的高维时间序列聚类问题,它要求聚类方法具有能处理高维和时序性数据,且能同时回答聚为几类最为合理的能力。鉴于目前常规聚类方法不同时具备这些能力,在模糊C-均值聚类和紧密与分离聚类有效函数的基础上,提出了能够处理高维时序聚类问题的动态模糊C-均值聚类分析方法和相应的时序聚类有效性函数,耦合二者建立了适用于汛期分期的有效模糊聚类分析方法,提出采用实码加速遗传算法优化求解,克服了模糊C-均值聚类方法常规迭代优化求解对初值敏感的困难,并给出了完备的建模步骤和模型的合理性检验。最后,将模型应用于滦河流域潘家口水库汛期分期中,得出了合理的结论。     

Approaches in research on flood risk perception and their importance in flood risk management: a review

Natural Hazards - The study of flood risk perception factors can be considered by using different paradigms. In an attempt to understand risk perception, two basic paradigms can be distinguished:...     

Spatiotemporal flood risk assessment of underground space considering flood intensity and escape route

Natural Hazards - Underground space is becoming increasingly vulnerable to inundation owing to the enhanced likelihood and consequences of urban flooding. However, previous studies on flooding of...     

Integrating risk perceptions into flood risk management: Trinidad case study

Natural Hazards - Flooding disasters are frequent and devastating events in Trinidad. Moderate amounts of precipitation burst riverbanks in central business districts, cities, and towns within the...     

Use of documentary sources on past flood events for flood risk management and land planning

The knowledge of past catastrophic events can improve flood risk mitigation policy, with a better awareness against risk. As such historical information is usually available in Europe for the past five centuries, historians are able to understand how past society dealt with flood risk, and hydrologists can include information on past floods into an adapted probabilistic framework. In France, Flood Risk Mitigation Maps are based either on the largest historical known flood event or on the 100-year flood event if it is greater. Two actions can be suggested in terms of promoting the use of historical information for flood risk management: (1) the development of a regional flood data base, with both historical and current data, in order to get a good feedback on recent events and to improve the flood risk education and awareness; (2) the commitment to keep a persistent/perennial management of a reference network of hydrometeorological observations for climate change studies.     

基于力学过程的蓄滞洪区洪水风险评估模型及应用

为定量评估分蓄洪工程启用过程中蓄滞洪区的洪水风险等级,创建了基于力学过程的蓄滞洪区洪水风险评估模型。该模型采用二维水动力学模块计算蓄滞洪区的洪水演进过程,利用洪水中人体跌倒失稳公式及洪水中房屋、农作物损失的计算关系式,评估各类受淹对象的洪水风险等级。然后将二维水动力学模块计算的洪水要素与两个物理模型试验值进行对比,表明二维水动力学模块的计算精度良好。最后计算了荆江分洪工程启用时分洪区内洪水的演进过程,并评估洪灾中群众的危险等级和财产损失。计算结果表明:洪水演进至140 h时,蓄滞洪区群众、房屋、水稻和棉花的平均损失率分别为85%、59%、63%和72%。模型中提出的采用基于受淹对象失稳机制的洪水风险分析方法,比以往经验水深法划分风险等级的适用性更好,不仅能为洪水风险管理及蓄滞洪区启用标准制定提供参考,也能推广应用于溃坝或堰塞湖溃决等极端洪水风险评估。     

Highway flood disaster risk evaluation and management in China

Flood disaster has become one of the most damaging natural disasters for the highway transportation all around the world, especially its destructive effects on highway infrastructures. In order to better understand the ruinous influence of flood disaster on highway transportation in China, this paper proposes an alternative evaluation index of highway flood disaster risk from three aspects, namely the disaster-causing factors, disaster-inducing environment, and disaster-bearing subjects. This paper also puts forward some targeted suggestions for the risk management, including two aspects: physical protection measurement and organization and management measurement. Moreover, this paper develops a highway flood disaster risk management system by using the ArcGIS technology.

     

洪涝灾害风险评估与分区研究进展

在全球气候变化和城市化进程不断加快的背景下,城市洪涝灾害频发,造成严重的经济损失和人员伤亡问题。对近年来中国典型城市洪涝灾害进行系统整理介绍,说明洪涝灾害带来的人员伤亡和经济损失巨大。风险评估作为一种非工程性防洪措施,是城市洪涝风险管理的首要工作,精确、高效的把握洪灾过程等特征可以为防灾减灾工作提供科学依据。对城市洪涝风险评估与分区的概念和内容进行系统梳理,常用的风险评估方法有数理统计法、不确定性分析法、遥感影像评估法、指标体系评估法、情景模拟评估法；风险分区常用方法有阈值法、经验公式法和物理机制法。论述了城市洪涝风险评估与分区常用方法的应用范围、优缺点及其发展前景。     

The application of fuzzy risk in researching flood disasters

To perform a fuzzy risk assessment the simplest way is to calculate the fuzzy expected value and convert fuzzy risk into non-fuzzy risk, i.e., a crisp value. In doing so, there is a transition from a fuzzy set to a crisp set. Therefore, the first step is to define an α level value, followed by selecting the elements x with a subordinate degree A(x) ≥ α. The fuzzy expected values, E_a (x) \underline{E}_{\alpha } (x) and [`(E)]_a (x) \overline{E}_{\alpha } (x) , of a possibility–probability distribution represent the fuzzy risk values being calculated. Therefore, we can obtain a conservative risk value, a venture risk value and a maximum probability risk value. Under such an α level, three risk values can be calculated. As α adopts all values between the set [0, 1], it is possible to obtain a series of risk values. Therefore, the fuzzy risk may either be a multi-valued risk or a set-valued risk. Calculation of the fuzzy expected value of a flood risk in the Jinhua River basin has been performed based on the interior–outer-set model. The selection of an α value is dependent on the confidence in different groups of people, while the selection of a conservative risk value or a venture risk value is dependent on the risk preference of these people.     

Perception of flood risk in Danube Delta,Romania

For exposed and vulnerable communities, the perception of natural risk is an essential link in the analysis of man–environment coping relationship and also an important parameter in the quantification of complex vulnerability as a central predictive variable in the risk equation. The topic of flood risk in related perception is of considerable interest, as some recently published papers have proven (Messner and Meyer 2005, 2006; Raaijmakers et al. 2008). The aim of the current study is to reveal the conscious and unconscious attitudes towards the flood risk for the inhabitants of the Danube Delta/Romania. These attitudes, defined by different degrees of psychological vulnerability, represent the background for a series of psycho-behavioural patterns that generate certain adjustment mechanisms and strategies. Application of a specially designed questionnaire and the statistical analysis of the results revealed two psychological factors as essential in establishing the psychosocial vulnerability degree of the interviewed subjects: (i) an internal control factor and (ii) an external control factor. The persons characterized by inner control have a significantly reduced general anxiety level in comparison to individuals with the control factor placed externally. As confidence diminishes, it increases the tendency of the individual to rely on the external factors for support and security. The lack of resources (indicating lower resilience) and mistrust in the support given emphasizes non-adaptive behaviours.

Preliminary flood risk assessment: the case of Athens

Flood mapping, especially in urban areas, is a demanding task requiring substantial (and usually unavailable) data. However, with the recent introduction of the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC), the need for reliable, but cost effective, risk mapping at the regional scale is rising in the policy agenda. Methods are therefore required to allow for efficiently undertaking what the Directive terms “preliminary flood risk assessment,” in other words a screening of areas that could potentially be at risk of flooding and that consequently merit more detailed attention and analysis. Such methods cannot rely on modeling, as this would require more data and effort that is reasonable for this high-level, screening phase. This is especially true in urban areas, where modeling requires knowledge of the detailed urban terrain, the drainage networks, and their interactions. A GIS-based multicriteria flood risk assessment methodology was therefore developed and applied for the mapping of flood risk in urban areas. This approach quantifies the spatial distribution of flood risk and is able to deal with uncertainties in criteria values and to examine their influence on the overall flood risk assessment. It can further assess the spatially variable reliability of the resulting maps on the basis of the choice of method used to develop the maps. The approach is applied to the Greater Athens area and validated for its central and most urban part. A GIS database of economic, social, and environmental criteria contributing to flood risk was created. Three different multicriteria decision rules (Analytical Hierarchy Process, Weighted Linear Combination and Ordered Weighting Averaging) were applied, to produce the overall flood risk map of the area. To implement this methodology, the IDRISI Andes GIS software was customized and used. It is concluded that the results of the analysis are a reasonable representation of actual flood risk, on the basis of their comparison with historical flood events.     

Highway flood disaster risk evaluation and management in China

Flood disaster has become one of the most damaging natural disasters for the highway transportation all around the world, especially its destructive effects on highway infrastructures. In order to better understand the ruinous influence of flood disaster on highway transportation in China, this paper proposes an alternative evaluation index of highway flood disaster risk from three aspects, namely the disaster-causing factors, disaster-inducing environment, and disaster-bearing subjects. This paper also puts forward some targeted suggestions for the risk management, including two aspects: physical protection measurement and organization and management measurement. Moreover, this paper develops a highway flood disaster risk management system by using the ArcGIS technology.     

Evaluating typical flood risks in Yangtze River Economic Belt: application of a flood risk mapping framework

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is one of the three national strategies of China, while flood risk is one of the most important concerns in the development of Yangtze River Economic Belt. In order to decrease the risks caused by floods, complete flood management system and adequate pre-arranged planning are desiderated to be researched in advance. This study considers two typical situations of flood risk, in which one is sluice-control situation in flood detention area and another is dike-break situation in flood-protected area, and proposes a framework for flood risk mapping. The results show that the losses caused by flood hazards are massive both in the two typical cases when extreme floods happen. The economic losses of different indicators are of great difference in flood detention area and flood-protected area, respectively. The framework effectively handles the complex boundaries in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and provides more accurate flood routing information. The evacuation plan module which has been incorporated in the framework also provides informative assistance for emergent action of evacuation under urgent condition.     

Characterizing flood hazard risk in data-scarce areas,using a remote sensing and GIS-based flood hazard index

The frequency in occurrence and severity of floods has increased globally. However, many regions around the globe, especially in developing countries, lack the necessary field monitoring data to characterize flood hazard risk. This paper puts forward methodology for developing flood hazard maps that define flood hazard risk, using a remote sensing and GIS-based flood hazard index (FHI), for the Nyamwamba watershed in western Uganda. The FHI was compiled using analytical hierarchy process and considered slope, flow accumulation, drainage network density, distance from drainage channel, geology, land use/cover and rainfall intensity as the flood causative factors. These factors were derived from Landsat, SRTM and PERSIANN remote sensing data products, except for geology that requires field data. The resultant composite FHI yielded a flood hazard map pointing out that over 11 and 18% of the study area was very highly and highly susceptible to flooding, respectively, while the remaining area ranged from medium to very low risk. The resulting flood hazard map was further verified using inundation area of a historical flood event in the study area. The proposed methodology was effective in producing a flood hazard map at the watershed local scale, in a data-scarce region, useful in devising flood mitigation measures.     

含盐风暴潮溃堤洪水数值模拟及风险分析

为了研究三角洲河口风暴潮溃堤时的盐水运动规律,建立一、二维耦合的盐度数学模型对风暴潮溃堤时的盐水运动进行模拟。模型考虑洪泛区建筑物对盐水运动的影响以及溃口的渐变发展过程。用2008年多个测站的实测数据对河网模型的潮位和盐度计算结果进行了验证。将模型应用于珠江三角洲河网某近海溃口风暴潮溃堤的盐水运动模拟,并绘制了最大盐度等值面图。计算结果表明,该溃口大部分区域的溃堤积水盐度超过了4psu,因此,溃堤洪水的高盐度积水影响不容忽视。通过比较“溃堤”和“不溃堤”两种情况下的河网盐度计算结果,发现上游河道的溃堤分流增大了河道的纳潮量,促使涨潮量增大,增大了下游河网的咸潮上溯风险,减弱了上游来流对咸潮的压制效果。     

Probabilistic flood risk analysis considering morphological dynamics and dike failure

A comprehensive flood risk assessment should aim not only at quantifying uncertainties but also the variability of risk over time. In this study, an efficient modelling framework was proposed to perform probabilistic hazard and risk analysis in dike-protected river systems accounting for morphological variability and uncertainty. The modelling framework combined the use of: (1) continuous synthetic discharge forcing, (2) a stochastic dike breach model dynamically coupled to a stochastic unsteady one-dimensional hydraulic model (MIKE1D) describing river flows, (3) a catalogue of pre-run probabilistic inundation maps (MIKE SHE) and (4) a damage and loss model (CAPRA). The methodology was applied using continuous simulations to a 45-km reach of the Upper Koshi River, Nepal, to investigate the changes in breach and flood hazards and subsequent risks after 2 and 5 years of probable river bed aggradation. The study results indicated an increase in annual average loss of 4% per year driven by changes in loss distribution in the most frequent loss return periods (20–500 years). The use of continuous simulations and dike breach model also provided a more robust estimation of risk metrics as compared to traditional binary treatment of flood defence and/or the direct association of flow with loss return periods. The results were helpful to illustrate the potential impacts of dynamic river morphology, dike failure and continuous simulation and their significance when devising flood risk study methodologies.     

Integrating the effects of flood experience on risk perception with responses to changing climate risk

Flood management decision-makers face significant challenges as the climate changes. The perceptions of those affected by floods are critical to the successful implementation of adaptation responses; risk perceptions are affected by how information is communicated and, in turn, perceptions influence expectations on flood risk managers to respond. The links between flood experience, risk perception, and responses by individual households were examined in the Hutt Valley, New Zealand, through a household survey, a workshop and interviews with local government practitioners. Two propositions were tested: (1) that flood experience can influence flood risk perceptions; and (2) that flood experience can stimulate increased risk reduction and adaptation actions where changing climate risk is likely. Perceptions of responsibility for flood management were also examined. The study found that previous flood experience contributes to heightened perception of risk, increased preparedness of households, greater willingness to make household-level changes, greater communication with councils, and more advocacy for spatial planning to complement existing structural protection. Flood-affected households had a stronger preference for central government and communities having flood risk responsibilities, in addition to local government. Those who lacked experience were more likely to be normalised to their prior benign experiences and thus optimistic about flood consequences. These results suggest that harnessing positive aspects of experience and communication of changing risk through engagement strategies could help shift the focus from citizens’ expectation that governments will always provide protection, to a citizen–local government–central government dialogue about the changing character of flood risk and its implications, and build a ‘risk conscious’ society in which ‘sharing and bearing’ is considered desirable.