Establishing the Database of Inundation Potential in Taiwan

The structural measure was the major solution for flood defense in Taiwan. However, the measure is always limited to the design standard and cannot prevent the damages when floods exceed certain scale. Therefore, non-structural measures for flood mitigation are the indispensable complements to structural solutions. The study introduces the establishment of inundation potential database that provides required information for the non-structural measures in Taiwan. The database was built by numerical simulations, based on different rainfall scenarios, and has been applied by the local governments of Taiwan for land use managements, flood warning systems, emergency responses, and flood insurance programs to reduce the flood damages and impacts.     

Flood Management in India

In this paper, flood problems in India, regional variabilityof the problem, present status of the ongoing management measures, their effectiveness and futureneeds in flood management are covered. Flood problems in India are presented by four zonesof flooding, viz. (a) Brahmaputra River Basin, (b) Ganga River Basin, (c) North-WestRivers Basin, and (d) Central India and Deccan Rivers Basin. Some special problems,related to floods like dam break flow, and water logging in Tal areas, are also mentioned.Progress of various flood management measures, both structural and non-structural, arediscussed. In addition, future needs to achieve efficient and successful flood managementmeasures in India are also pointed out.     

GIS-based distributed technique for assessing economic loss from flood damage: pre-feasibility study for the Anyang Stream Basin in Korea

Large national budgets are required for flood damage reduction projects, making it critical to ensure that public money used therein be spent efficiently. Accordingly, reliable assessment of flood damage is a critical issue in analysis of the economic aspects of flood damage reduction projects. To this end, this study aims to provide a GIS (geographical information system)-based technique for distributed flood damage assessment. We consider two aspects of flood damage assessment from an engineering and economic perspective, i.e. flood inundation analysis and multi-dimensional flood damage analysis (MD-FDA). To perform this assessment, we used a GIS-based framework and data processing method to assess damages. The proposed methodology was applied to flood control channel projects for flood disaster prevention in the Anyang Stream Basin in Korea and presents detailed GIS data processing and assessment results. Findings from this study may contribute to the improvement of usability of MD-FDA and may provide research directions for integrating economic and engineering factors. This distributed technique will also assist in the decision-making process when evaluating the economic feasibility of flood damage reduction projects for structural and non-structural measures.     

洪水影响预报和风险预警理念与业务实践

我国是世界上洪涝灾害频繁而严重的国家之一,洪水预报预警是防汛减灾工作中重要的非工程措施和洪水防御工作的耳目和参谋。从水文行业的视角,回顾了近年来我国洪水预报预警技术与业务进展,分析了当前洪水预报预警工作面临的新形势和新要求,对比国内外同类行业发展查找了存在的差距,阐述了洪水影响预报和风险预警的定义和理念,从顶层对基于影响预报和风险预警的新一代洪水预报预警系统("国家洪水预报预警系统")总体框架进行了研究和设计,一些关键技术成果在大范围洪水早期预警业务实践中得到了探索应用,取得了较好的效果。     

三峡水库建成后长江中下游防洪战略思考

三峡水库建成后,长江中下游防洪形势显著改善,但由于经济社会发展,防洪要求的提高和江湖关系的变化,长江防洪形势发生了一些新的变化。以1954年和1998年典型大洪水为例,分析了三峡水库建成后长江中下游防洪形势出现的新变化,讨论了长江中下游蓄滞洪空间格局调整及江湖关系变化对于防洪的影响。根据长江水沙变化、河道演变、水库群调控和分蓄洪区使用几率变化等出现的新问题,提出未来防洪战略及对策。结果表明:三峡建成后,百年一遇以下洪水防御形势明显好转,而百年一遇以上特大防洪的防洪形势仍然严峻,洪水风险主要转移到水库群上;今后需要在加强蓄滞洪区建设的基础上,重点推动防洪非工程措施建设,以减轻特大洪水带来的灾害损失。     

Urban flood vulnerability assessments: the case of Dire Dawa city,Ethiopia

Dire Dawa city is identified as one of the most flood-affected cities in Ethiopia. Classifying village-level flood vulnerability using flood indicators is a new approach to Dire Dawa city. Analysis of different flood vulnerability factors underpins sustainable flood risk management and the application of Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI) approach is the hub of this study. Relevant data were collected from 110 households sampled from purposely selected 10 villages found in Dire Dawa city. The flood vulnerability index was used to compare, classify and rank villages in terms of their flood vulnerability levels. For this purpose, 24 sets of indicators which are strongly affecting the levels of flood vulnerability were assessed from social, economic and physical perspectives. The FVI of each village was computed with unequal method of weighting indicators. The findings of the study revealed that Dire Dawa city villages were experiencing varying levels of flood vulnerability. Accordingly, villages 05, 06, 07 and 09 were identified with high flood vulnerability level while villages 03, 04 and 08 and villages 01, 02 and extension village were identified with medium and low level of vulnerability, respectively. Interestingly, the findings of the study confirmed that social factors contributed much for flood vulnerability in Dire Dawa city. Hence, future urban flood risk planning and management endeavors in the city of Dire Dawa must be underpinned by proper utilization of the flood vulnerability map developed addressing social vulnerability component through both structural and non-structural urban flood risk management measures.

     

Regional Cooperation in Flood Management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Region: Bangladesh Perspective

Bangladesh is known to behighly vulnerable to floods. Frequent floods have put enormous constraints on its development potential. Unfortunately, the frequency of high intensity floods is on the rise. So far the country has struggled to put a sizeable infrastructure in place to prevent flooding in may parts of the country with limited success. In recent times, it was found that losses of lives and valuable assets could be significantly minimized by implementing non-structural measures including the improvement of flood forecasting and warning system. The existing flood forecasting and warning capacity of Bangladesh could be more effective if real-timedata could be acquired from upstreamareas within the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) catchment, where runoff is generated. In order to do so, Bangladesh needs to foster an effective regional cooperationwith the other GBM regional countries of India, Nepal, and Bhutan. This article examines how GBM regional cooperation could be useful towards managing floods in Bangladesh in particularand the region in general.     

The influences of land use and sanitation infrastructure on flooding in Kumasi,Ghana

Each year during the rainy seasons, the Ghanaian media is dominated by banner headlines of flooded urban landscapes along with emergency response teams doling out relief items to the victims. However, when the rains subside and the floods are no longer newsworthy, the key stakeholders return to their normal duties only to await the next cycle of rains with bated breath. Based on the analyses of secondary and fieldwork data, the paper found no significant change in recent rainfall patterns that could account for the city’s flood problems. Rather, the impervious surfaces created through the removal of wetlands, riparian lands and urban vegetation, along with deposits of sediments and domestic wastes into streams and drains, have combined to slow down the velocity of stormwater flows and allowing it to disperse into the surrounding built up areas in lower terrains. The paper recommends the construction of modern city-wide sewerage systems to cope up with the current and predicted rainfall patterns, complemented by non-structural approaches including the protection of wetlands and urban vegetation to reduce the amount of storm water flows. Planners should anticipate and project future land use demands to cater emerging activities such as LPG stations which currently take sites in open space or flood ways and manage and direct physical development into low risk locations. Other measures would include the consideration of free domestic waste collection systems, mandatory flood insurance schemes on properties, with premiums assessed based on site risks, the development of early warning systems to minimize the effects of floods.     

Flood hazard management in the United States and the National Flood Insurance Program

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) both provides flood insurance to floodplain occupants and encourages local communities to adopt floodplain land-use regulations. As well as providing the core of the federal non-structural flood hazard management effort, the NFIP is a central element in both state and local activities. A major issue influencing the success of the NFIP in curbing flood damages is its treatment of properties built before the adoption of floodplain regulations. The potential for using the NFIP to encourage floodproofing and influence post-flood hazard mitigation must be fully explored.     

Flooding in the Red River Basin – Lessons from Post Flood Activities

Flood of 1997 affected a large number of residents in the Red River Basin. Life disruption, economic damage, lengthy recovery process, physical and emotional trauma motivated a number of main initiatives to improve the level of preparedness in case of future floods. This review will focus on the involvement of the International Joint Commission (IJC). Personal experience is used in this review to emphasize a number of important lessons, of special relevance to Canadian portion of the basin, from the post flood activities. Level of preparedness for, and potential damage from future floods will benefit from focusing very serious effort on the improvement of the Canadian database, exchange of data with the U.S. and standardization of data collection, exchange and use. Tools for sustainable floodplain management are improving. However, the Red River Basin with its characteristics requires a special set of sophisticated tools that will enhance flood flow forecasting, planning of new flood control measures (structural and non-structural) and emergency operations of existing flood protection system. City of Winnipeg, being the largest population centre in the basin deserves a special attention. Additional protection of 670,000 people is required that will take into consideration temporal and spatial distribution of economic and social costs and benefits.     

Using value engineering to optimize flood forecasting and flood warning systems: Golestan and Golabdare watersheds in Iran as case studies

Flood occurrence has always been one of the most important natural phenomena, which is often associated with disaster. Consequently, flood forecasting (FF) and flood warning (FW) systems, as the most efficient non-structural measures in reducing flood loss and damage, are of prime importance. These systems are low cost and the time required for their implementation is relatively short. It is emphasized that for designing the components of these systems for various rivers, climatic conditions and geographical settings different methods are required. One of the major difficulties during implementing these systems in different projects is the fact that sometimes the main functions of these systems are ignored. Based on a systematic and practical approach and considering the components of these systems, it would be possible to extract the most essential key functions of the system and save time, effort and money by this way. For instance, in a small watershed with low concentration and small lead time, the main emphasis should be on predicting and monitoring weather conditions. In this article, different components of flood forecasting and flood warning systems have been introduced. Then analysis of the FF and FW system functions has been undertaken based on the value engineering (VE) technique. Utilizing a functional view based on function analysis system technique (FAST), the total trend of FF and FW functions has been identified. The systematic trend and holistic view of this technique have been used in optimizing FF and FW systems of the Golestan province and Golabdare watersheds in Iran as the case studies.     

Measuring the impact of mitigation activities on flood loss reduction at the parcel level: the case of the clear creek watershed on the upper Texas coast

As property damage from flooding continues to increase, particularly in coastal areas, the adoption of strategies to mitigate these losses has never been more important to protecting the health and safety of coastal communities. Both structural and non-structural flood mitigation activities are being considered to buffer the adverse consequences of building structures in areas exposed to flood risk. However, little research has been conducted on the effectiveness of flood mitigation practices, particularly non-structural approaches at the parcel level. Our study addresses this lack of critical knowledge by examining the effect of mitigation activities adopted under the FEMA community rating system on insured property losses across multiple communities within the Clear Creek watershed located just south of Houston, TX and adjacent to Galveston Bay. Specifically, we statistically identify the degree to which various mitigation strategies adopted by a community reduce flood loss claims among 9,555 parcels from 1999 to 2009. Results indicate that several mitigation policies adopted at the community level result in significant savings in property damage for homeowners in the Clear Creek watershed.     

Economics of Flood Protection in India

The peculiar rainfall pattern in Indiarenders the country highly vulnerable to floods. Forty million hectares of land, roughlyone-eighth of the country's geographical area, is prone to floods. Each year, floods cause extensive damage to life and property, losses being exacerbated by rapid population growth, unplanned development and unchecked environmental degradation. The country has been tackling the problem through structural and non-structural measures. While non-structural measures like flood forecasting aim at improving the preparedness to floods by seeking to keep people away from floodwaters, structural measures involve the construction of physical structures like embankments, dams, drainage channels, and reservoirs that prevent floodwaters from reaching potential damage centres. Almost 48% of the vulnerable area has been provided with reasonable protection, though floods continue to cause widespread losses year after year. This paper examines the incidence of floods and the trends in consequent losses in the eastern region of the country – one of the most vulnerable – with the objective of studying the efficacy of flood protection measures in the region. Based on a simple regression exercise for three highly vulnerable states in the region, the paper argues that flood protection measures have been inadequate in controlling losses and reducing vulnerability. Regressions for the three states over the period 1971 to 1996 indicate that the level of protection is an insignificant explanatory variable in explaining the number of people (adjusted for increases in density) affected by floods; while area affected, as an indicator of the intensity of floods remains the main loss-determining factor.     

山洪影响调查评价与预警体系建设方法研究——以昌江芦溪河段为例

以山洪影响调查成果为基础,评价了昌江芦溪河段受洪水影响的程度,建立了水位预警指标体系和水文预报模型。得出的主要结论有:昌江芦溪河段洪水影响机率不到5年一遇,罗村最典型,个别年份重复受灾,属典型的山洪影响威胁区;以既有水文站点为基础,建立了水文站点的水位与上下游村落淹没基础信息的量化关联,形成"1对N"的预警关联体系,标定了集合对象的成灾水位(75.50m),分析结论与实际调查结果吻合;研究了昌江流域产汇流规律,建立了预报模型。本文的评价思路与预警体系构架方法可以作为完善山洪灾害非工程措施、中小河流水文监测系统实际应用的参考,对各地正在开展的山洪灾害调查评价工作具有参考意义。     

Computer-based Model for Flood Evacuation Emergency Planning

A computerized simulation model for capturing human behavior during flood emergency evacuation is developed using a system dynamics approach. It simulates the acceptance of evacuation orders by the residents of the area under threat; number of families in the process of evacuation; and time required for all evacuees to reach safety. The model is conceptualized around the flooding conditions (physical and management) and the main set of social and mental factors that determine human behavior before and during the flood evacuation. The number of families under the flood threat, population in the process of evacuation, inundation of refuge routes, flood conditions (precipitation, river elevation, etc.), and different flood warnings and evacuation orders related variables are among the large set of variables included in the model. They are linked to the concern that leads to the danger recognition, which triggers evacuation decisions that determine the number of people being evacuated. The main purpose of the model is to assess the effectiveness of different flood emergency management procedures. Each procedure consists of the choice of flood warning method, warning consistency, timing of evacuation order, coherence of the community, upstream flooding conditions, and set of weights assigned to different warning distribution methods. Model use and effectiveness are tested through the evaluation of the effectiveness of different flood evacuation emergency options in the Red River Basin, Canada.     

Monte Carlo analysis of the effect of spatial distribution of storms on prioritization of flood source areas

Implementation of structural and non-structural flood control measures in flood-prone watersheds is on increasing demand. Different watershed areas are not necessarily hydrologically similar and impose variable effects on the outlet flow hydrograph. Meanwhile, prioritization of watershed areas in terms of flood generation is essential for economic flood control planning. Previous works have focused on the definition of a flood index that quantifies the contribution of each subwatershed unit or grid cell to the outlet flood hydrograph through the application of unit flood response (UFR) approach. In the present research, for the first time, the effect of spatial pattern of storm events on the flood index variation was assessed via a Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis. To do so, the UFR approach was carried out for a large number of randomly generated rainfall spatial pattern. The proposed methodology was adopted to the Tangrah watershed in northern Iran. The watershed is frequently hit by floods that have historically caused loss of life and properties. The results indicated that for the more frequent flood events, the flood index is quite sensitive to the spatial distribution of rainfall such that for the highest ranked subwatershed (SW6), the standardized variation of the flood index values (i.e., the uncertainty range) decreases from 1.0 to 0.5 when the rainfall depth increases from 20 to 150 mm, respectively. The results further revealed that increasing the rainfall depth from 20 to 150 mm would cause the effect of rainfall spatial distribution on subwatersheds’ flood indices to diminish. The implications are that if flood control measures are designed for more frequent floods with lower return periods, an uncertainty analysis is required to identify the range of flood index variations.     

Optimal design of flood-control multi-reservoir system on a watershed scale

Flood events have the highest damage costs and losses among natural hazards. There are different types of measures to mitigate flood damage costs and their negative consequences. Application of flood-control reservoirs or detention dams, as one of the main measures, may decrease devastating flood effects or even may cause to intensify flood damages in the watershed by a poor design with tremendous construction costs. Optimal design of a flood-control multi-reservoir system can simultaneously minimize investment costs of constructions and potential flood damage costs. This study proposes a simulation-based optimization approach to optimize the design of multi-reservoirs for flood control in the watershed by coupling the MIKE-11 hydrodynamic model and the NSGA-II multi-objective optimization model. The present approach provides the Pareto optimal solutions between two conflict objectives of minimizing total investment costs and the expected flood damage costs in the watershed. Application of the proposed model for a small watershed in central part of Iran as a case study shows that optimal designs of multi-reservoir systems can efficiently reduce construction costs, flood peaks and their corresponding damage costs at the downstream reaches of the basin.     

An Assessment of Structural Measures for Flood-prone Lowlands with High Population Density along the Keelung River in Taiwan

Midstream of the Keelung River Basin in Northern Taiwan has become highly urbanized and densely populated area. Flood inundation along riversides frequently occurred during typhoons or rainstorms. Three protection measures, including constructions of high-level protection levees, a diversion channel, and a detention reservoir, were proposed for flood mitigation. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the flood mitigation performance of the three proposed structural measures by using combined hydrologic analyses and hydraulic routings. A semi-distributed parallel-type linear reservoirs rainfall-runoff model was used for estimating the surface runoff. Furthermore, a 1-D dynamic channel routing model was coupled with a two-dimensional inundation model to simulate the hydraulic characteristics of river flooding and overland flow. Simulation results of flood stages, runoff peak discharges, and inundation extent under design rainfall scenarios were chosen as the criteria for evaluation. The results showed a diversion channel is superior to the other two measures for flood mitigation of the study area. After the process of environmental impact assessment, a revised diversion channel approach has been approved for construction as the major structural measure.     

Identifying factors influencing flood mitigation at the local level in Texas and Florida: the role of organizational capacity

In the United States, mitigating the adverse impacts of flooding has increasingly become the responsibility of local decision makers. Despite the importance of understanding why flood mitigation techniques are implemented at the local level, few empirical studies have been conducted over the last decade. Our study addresses this lack of research by examining the factors influencing local communities to adopt both structural and non-structural flood mitigation strategies. We use statistical models to predict multiple flood mitigation techniques implemented by cities and counties based on a survey of floodplain administrators and planning officials across Texas and Florida. Particular attention is paid to the role of organizational capacity to address floods in addition to various local geophysical and socioeconomic characteristics. Results indicate that organizational capacity is a significant factor contributing to the implementation of both structural and non-structural flood mitigation techniques, even when controlling for contextual characteristics.     

洪水管理经济评价研究进展

洪水管理经济评价是践行洪水管理治水方略必不可少的环节。从洪水管理经济评价理论、洪灾损失评估以及洪水管理成本效益评估等方面综述了洪水管理经济评价的主要研究进展,分析了目前研究存在的不足,指出现有的防洪经济理论与方法已难以满足洪水管理决策对经济评价的要求。强调建立完善的洪水管理经济评价理论体系,扩展评价内容和范围,深入开展非工程措施效益、生态环境影响和社会公平等评价方法的研究是中国今后洪水管理经济评价研究的重点。