Flood-risk management strategies in European member states (flood era)

This report gives the results of the UK element of the FLOOD-ERA project.

From:
Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Published
18 February 2021
Category:
Managing flood incidents
Topics:
Communicating risk, Decision making with uncertainty, Flood costs, Flood risk assessment, Flood risk governance, Health, safety and wellbeing, Investment, Partnership working, Resilient infrastructure, Spatial planning, Strategy and planning, Sustainable drainage systems
Project status:
Completed
Project code:
FD2602
Date of completion:
31 March 2008

Documents

FLOOD-ERA The effectiveness and efficiency of non-structural flood risk reduction measures, and implementation constraints - final report (124KB) PDF

FLOOD-ERA The effectiveness and efficiency of non-structural flood risk reduction measures, and implementation constraints - summary (78KB) PDF

FLOOD-ERA The effectiveness and efficiency of non-structural flood risk reduction measures, and implementation constraints - technical report (3.9MB) PDF

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Details

The overall aim of FLOOD-ERA is to show how steps towards effective and efficient flood risk management strategies in European member states can be made through the improvement of the evaluation of structural measures (SMs) and non-structural measures (NSMs). Particular policy, institutional or other ‘contexts’, determine the extent to which SMs and NSMs are used for flood risk management.

This research is based on analysis of policy documents, in-depth interviews with decision makers and six case studies in:

  • Germany
  • the UK
  • Austria

This summary reports on the UK research.

UK research findings

NSMs for flood mitigation should be given more focused attention by flood managers and decision makers and should be evaluated differently according to the management context. The research showed that risk perception is not the impediment to the implementation of NSMs that had first been thought. Most NSMs investigated were effective but take-up levels are often poor because of:

  • professional biases
  • inadequate policy strength
  • limitations in the appraisal system

Where there’s a commitment to NSMs however, they can be implemented to good effect.

This project ran from 2006 to 2008 at a cost of £42,466.

Published 18 February 2021
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