ABSTRACT
Floods are responsible for about 20% to 30% of the economic losses caused by natural hazards worldwide (Douben and Ratnayake, 2005). It is expected that Ÿood risk will rise in many parts of the world as a response to a combination of changing climate and, thus, altered Ÿood frequencies (e.g., Kundzewicz et al., 2005) and an increase in vulnerability, for example, due to increasing Ÿoodplain occupancy, landcover changes, susceptible building materials, etc. Thus, there is an enhanced demand for better and reliable Ÿood damage prevention. This can be interpreted as part of climate change adaptation that aims, according to the European Environmental Agency (EEA, 2008), at increasing the resilience of natural and human systems to current and future impacts of climate change such as Ÿooding.
