ABSTRACT
Floods constitute one of the most serious of environmental hazards. Globally, they affect all continents and most countries. The sources of flooding vary considerably between the different countries that are affected, including flooding at the coast, inland flooding, urban flooding and flooding that is a result of intense rainstorms. The impacts of floods include economic and financial losses to homes, businesses and livelihoods, the destruction of communications and the consequent effect on income generation, and also the effects on health and distress caused by flooding to the individuals and communities affected. Governments and their agencies are increasingly advocating flood-resilient communities. More responsibility is placed on homeowners and businesses to invest in their own preparedness or mitigation measures, based on an increased awareness and acceptance of risk. The mitigation of flood risk can involve a bafflingly wide range of interventions. Traditionally, these have been categorised into structural measures involving engineering works and non-structural measures. A more nuanced categorisation sees interventions involving risk reduction, exposure reduction and flood vulnerability reduction. A number of issues and complications continue to concern the management of flood risk, which has moved away from the engineering domination that was current in the 1980s and 1990s towards a more holistic approach involving a number of stakeholders and many different disciplines. In parallel, there has been a shift towards a greater understanding of the human and policy dimensions involved and the recognition that governance arrangements can crucially affect policy outcomes.
