Flood risk management challenges and sustainability
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This document discusses the interrelations and challenges of sustainability aspects of flood risk management. It notes that flood risk management must consider hazards, land use, urban planning, climate change, social, ecological and economic vulnerabilities. Important feedback exists between risk analysis, evaluation, and reducing measures. Assessment of risk reducing measures requires a broad sustainability perspective to address conflicts between risk reduction and social and ecological values from both short and long-term, future generation perspectives.
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Flood risk management challenges and sustainability
- 1. Sustainability aspects of flood risk management - interrelations and challanges Lars Nyberg 1 , Mariele Evers 1,2 , Yvonne Andersson-Sköld 3 , Magnus Johansson 1,4 and Barbara Blumenthal 1 1 Centre for Climate and Safety, Karlstad University 2 Leuphana University, Lüneburg 3 Swedish Geotechnical Institute 4 Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency
- 2. Centre for Climate and Safety
- 5. Components of Flood risk management Risk analysis Probability Hazard Consequences Vulnerability Risk evalua-tion Risk reducing meas-ures Centre for Climate and Safety
- 7. Important feedback Risk analysis Probability Hazard Consequences Vulnerability Risk evalua-tion Risk reducing meas-ures Centre for Climate and Safety
- 8. Assessment of measures (Andersson-Sköld et al. 2010)
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Good afternoon, dear colleagues. My name is Lars Nyberg and I work for the Centre for climate and safety at Karlstad University in Sweden. My co-author4s in this study is Prof Mariele Evers at the Lauphan university in Lüneburg, Germany and she is also guest-professor at our university. Yvonne Andersson-Sköld from SGI which is the national authority in Sweden for geotechnical issues, including landslides. Magnus Johansson and Barbara Blumenthal are working for our centre but Magnus is also employed by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. The title of the presentation is Sustainability aspects of flood risk management – interrelations and challanges.
- I want to start with two examples from the case studies we used to identify positive and negative relations between different interests and dimensions regarding the use and users of the water system. Our first example from the Elbe river is a photo showing a high-positioned politician with the chain-saw in his hands taking away vegetation from the Elbe floodpain, to reduce the roughness and the resistance for the water. The thing is that this area is a reserve under UNESCO’s MaB-programme. The removal of vegetation from this floodplain has occurred some years ago as a response to the large floods in the last decade. The removal also caused demostrations among a nature-interested public. Elbe has been heavily flooded several times the last decade and there are really sgtrong incentives to reduce the flood risks to save lives and large econoic assets. The second example is from Lake Vänern in Sweden. This article says that there is a criticism against low water levels which causes problems for the social use of the lake and also – more long-term – for ecosystems and landscape development. The reaction has come after a decision to lower the water level with 15 cm in average. The water-level engage the users: The risk-managers want a low and stable level, the social users and the shipping want a stable and average level and the nature conservationists want a varying level with both dry and wet periods. Both this quite big water systems have complex risk systems and my intention is not primarily to question the ongoing flood management, but to ask for a wide assessment before decisions about different measures are taken. These kind of considerations are also needed when you go from ’flood protection’ with a mainly technical perspective to flood risk management including also soft tools as communication, education, planning, etc.
- The lake Vänern catchment is the largest in Sweden. The lake is also the largest in Sweden and also within the EU. There are flood risks around the lake, in most of the 13 tributaries and in the outlet river down to Gothenburg. The risk system is complicated with large landslide risks in the outlet river, substantially limiting the discharge out of the lake. The inflow could during wet periods be 3 times the allowed outflow. Since the lake is regulated for hydropower (the largest reservoir in Sweden) the water-level, under non-extreme situations, could be controlled and decided by the hydropower company. There are also industries and polluted soils along the lake and rivers, and the water is used as drinking-water for the almost the entire region. There are obvious ecological, social and economical values in the lake, upstream and downstream. The 22000 islands create unique habitats for many species. The water adds to life quality in 13 municipalities around the lake and the recreational and tourism activity is large. The economic values are large with the hydropower, fishing, shipping and tourism. Many of these economic activities are also relevant for the GHG reduction, thinking of hydropower, local food production in fishing and energy-efficient shipping. With a drinking-water quality in the lake, you can expect a development of the summer tourism and other types of exploitation in the near future.
- Here is a map of Germany and the Elbe river. The green areas show the Biosphere reserve along Elbe. Out of a total catchment area of 148000 km2 (about three times the one for Lake Vänern) the reserve covers 3740 km2. The society around the the river has experiences several floods of which the worst was 2002. The are several large cities and inhabitants affected by the floods and there are large protection systems along the river. Since some parts of the river – mainly where the Biosphere reserve is – previously created the German-German border, much of the floodplain is scarcely exploited. Therefore large areas are suitable for biodiversity, recreation and tourism.
- These are quite common components of risk management. A risk analysis with probabilities and consequences, in our context often expressed as hazards and vulnerabilities. After the analysis there is the evaluation of the risk, which is a needed step before the risk-reducing measures are decided. In each of these components we can identify sustainability aspects.