Climate proof flood risk management

Natural hazards and especially floods have caused severe economic damages in Europe in the last few decades. Further increases in flood risk are expected due to the effects of climate change and ongoing socio-economic development in risk-prone areas. To address the observed and projected increase in flood risk, non-structural flood mitigation measures like flood zoning or building precautionary measures, are increasingly seen as a promising adaptation strategy, complementary to technical flood defense systems. In addition to the associated economic benefits, the implementation of non-structural flood mitigation measures also accounts for the possibility that flood defenses can fail, and thus prepares for such unexpected crisis situations. However, even though non-structural flood mitigation measures have received renewed attention in recent years, information on their operational use and effectiveness is still scarce. For cost-effective flood risk management, more (quantitative) information about the damage reducing effect of mitigation measures in different flood situations, as well as the conditions under which such measures are operationally used, are needed.

The objective of this project, which is part of the Dutch research programme ‘Knowledge for Climate’ , is to assess the potential of flood mitigation measures. Most effective mitigation measures will be identified for different flood situations. Additionally, successful strategies for the promotion of such measures will be described by means of an international comparison.

In order to address the objectives of this project, the following three research questions have been formulated: