Abstract

Risk assessments are important to ensure efficient and effective flood risk management. Methods and strategies for flood risk assessment are described in the literature, but less is known about how assessments are actually performed. We have studied local flood risk assessments in Sweden by interviewing flood risk managers in municipalities and analyzing documentation of flood risk assessment efforts.There is a large variation between municipalities in how flood risk assessment has been done. The efforts made in association with the EU Floods Directive together with a Government Commission about a flood in Lake Malaren are the most advanced assessments. Only a few of the municipalities have done comparable assessments. Generally, however, there is a lack of experience and theoretical knowledge about concepts and methods of flood risk assessment in the municipalities.In the assessments studied, the flood itself had been rather well defined in hazard maps. The consequences of a flood had been studied in the larger projects but only by half of the municipalities. It is mainly direct, tangible consequences that have been included. It is mainly the exposure of assets that has been investigated while little attention has been paid to vulnerability.To improve flood risk assessment in Sweden there is a need for knowledge and resources in the municipalities. Prioritization and motivation are needed to actually perform the assessments. National guidelines for may be helpful to guide municipalities in this work and to have more uniform risk assessment. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Flood risk assessment; Practice; Swedish municipalities; Interview study

Published in

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
2016, Volume: 18, pages: 206-217
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Bishop, Kevin

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Uppsala University

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts


UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Management
Ocean and River Engineering
Climate Research


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2016.07.003

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/81228