Flood Risk Science and Management (PDF)

Approaches to avoid loss of life and limit disruption and damage
from flooding have changed significantly in recent years.
Worldwide, there has been a move from a strategy of flood defence
to one of flood risk management. Flood risk management includes
flood prevention using hard defences, where appropriate, but also
requires that society learns to live with floods and that
stakeholders living in flood prone areas develop coping strategies
to increase their resilience to flood impacts when these occur.
This change in approach represents a paradigm shift which stems
from the realisation that continuing to strengthen and extend
conventional flood defences is unsustainable economically,
environmentally, and in terms of social equity. Flood risk
management recognises that a sustainable approach must rest on
integrated measures that reduce not only the probability of
flooding, but also the consequences. This is essential as
increases in the probability of inundation are inevitable in many
areas of the world due to climate change, while socio-economic
development will lead to spiralling increases in the consequences
of flooding unless land use in floodplains is carefully
planned.

Flood Risk Science and Management provides an extensive and
comprehensive synthesis of current research in flood management;
providing a multi-disciplinary reference text covering a wide range
of flood management topics. Its targeted readership is the
international research community (from research students through to
senior staff) and flood management professionals, such as
engineers, planners, government officials and those with flood
management responsibility in the public sector. By using the
concept of case study chapters, international coverage is given to
the topic, ensuring a world-wide relevance.