FLOOD-ERA - Flood risk management strategies in European Member States | Umweltbundesamt

Background and Goals

The project evaluates structural and non-structural measures for flood risk management strategies. The background to this is the fact that risk reduction as an overall objective of flood risk management can be achieved in different ways. In the past, flood disasters have predominantly been viewed as a natural phenomenon. Correspondingly, measures have concentrated on technical flood protection, such as dams, dykes etc.  By contrast, non-structual measures include all activities that are not part of technical flood protection. They include a wide range of different types of damage mitigation measures, such as planning instruments, warning systems and insurance. The importance of non-structural measures has growh due to the change of paradigm from "flood safet"" to "risk management".

As a result, FLOOD ERA focuses primarily on methodological challenges in the evaluation of non-structural measures compared to structural measures. In addition, an attempt is made to identify contextual relationships in decision making, e.g. legal regulations, planning instructions and guidelines that can influence the choice of risk reduction measures. In addition, the project investigates example areas in the European project partner states.

The objective of FLOOD ERA is to improve the methods for assessing different types of flood risk management measures, taking account of the context in which decisions are made. Initially, the distinction between structural - i.e. "technical" flood protection in the traditional sense (e.g. raising dykes) - and non-structural measures such as changes in land use and warning systems is of central importance. The project assumes that contextual factors play an important role in consideration and decision-making processes for or against certain types of measures, particularly the risk perception of decision makers. Previous research in this field suggests that an assumption of this kind is obvious, but to date little attention has been paid to the issue. In an economic sense, this involves additional transaction costs that need to be included in any evaluation of the efficiency of particular measures.

The integrated methodology to be developed will be tested using different regional case studies in Austria, the United Kingdom and Germany, based on example measures.

In Germany, the UFZ (Centre for Environmental Research) is primarily involved in two areas:

a) Investigation of the decision-making context and risk assessment of selected decision makers. From a social science perspective, this involves both the people, their qualifications and professional socialisation, and the institutional conditions governing their actions. The objective is to gain a better understanding and develop an explanation for the reasons for choosing certain types of measures and the decision against or to fade out other measures (and thus the importance of knowledge, experience and fears). The main method used is expert meetings based on set guidelines.

b) Methods for evaluating the efficiency of structural and non-structural measures. This involves an economic analysis of example measures on the Mulde using methods such as cost/efficiency analysis and cost/benefit analysis. There is also an investigation of the extent to which the institutional context results in transaction costs associated with the decision on structural and non-structural methods, and the development and testing of measures to quantify these costs, at least approximately. The economic evaluation is thus extended by consideration of transaction costs.

Content time

Research area/region

Participants