Guidelines for Reducing Flood Losses

Floods have the greatest damage potential of all natural disasters worldwide and affect the greatest number of people. On a global basis, there is evidence that the number of people affected and economic damages resulting from flooding are on the rise at an alarming rate. Society must move from the current paradigm of post-disaster response. Plans and efforts must be undertaken to break the current event-disaster cycle. More than ever, there is the need for decision makers to adopt holistic approaches for flood disaster management.

Extreme flooding events are not relegated to the least developed nations, but can also devastate and ravage the most economically advanced and industrialized nations. In the last decade there has been catastrophic flooding in Bangladesh, China, India, Germany, Mozambique, Poland, the United States and elsewhere. When floods occur in less developed nations, they can effectively wipe out decades of investments in infrastructure, seriously cripple economic prosperity, and result in thousands of deaths and epidemics. The majority of the deaths associated with such disasters can be found within the most vulnerable members of society, namely women and children. The greatest tragedy is that most of these deaths, associated post traumatic stresses, and social and economic hardships can be either avoided or dramatically reduced through pre-, during, and post-disaster investments in preparedness activities and associated infrastructure, flood plain policy development, effective watershed land use planning, flood forecasting and warning systems, and response mechanisms.
 

Acknowledgements Foreword Executive Summary Table of Contents

	Introduction

	1. Socio-Economic Aspects of Water-Related Disaster Response
	1.1 Social Aspects of Disaster Reduction and Response 1.2 Economic Aspects of Disaster Reduction and Response 1.3 Response Strategies 1.4 Public Awareness and Communication

	2. Key Elements of Flood Disaster Management
	2.1 Risk Management and Flood Plain Delineation 2.2 Supportive Technologies 2.3 Flood Plain Management 2.4 Watershed Management 2.5 Climate Variability and Change 2.6 Development of Policies, Strategies and Plans 2.7 Emergency Preparedness and Response

	3. Integrated Flood Forecasting, Warning and Response System
	3.1 Defining an Integrated System 3.2 The Hydrometeorological Network for Forecasting 3.3 Meteorological Support 3.4 The Forecast Centre

	4. Establishing an Integrated System

	Bibliography

	Annex
	Case Study 1: Community Education Case Study 2: Regional Cooperation in Southern Africa Case Study 3: An Instructional Programme for the Local Level Case Study 4: Access to Information - The RANET Project

	Acronyms
Source:	UN/ISDR