Communities must be better prepared for flooding in their homes and businesses, an expert warns, as climate change predictions suggest more extreme flooding globally.
Communities must be better prepared for flooding in their homes and businesses, an expert warns, as climate change predictions suggest more extreme flooding globally.
Floods still inflict major costs to the economies, livelihoods and well-being of communities, with flood risks and impacts set to increase further due to climate change.
Professor of Environmental Management, Lindsey McEwen explains how many experts now believe local communities have critical roles as key actors within flood risk management and disaster risk reduction.
Professor McEwen said, « Flood risks are becoming more diverse, as are the communities they affect. So the question is, how can communities become more resilient? »
Professor McEwen offers various studies to show more extreme flooding is likely in developed world settings, with an increasing impact on people.
As well as the growing impact of climate change, there is also an increase in the economic value of assets on floodplains. One study predicts these annual flood damages in Europe could rise from EUR 5.3 billion to 40 billion by 2050, with the number of people affected increasing from 200 thousand to more than 0.5 million.
Professor McEwen collates evidence from up-to-date research, policy, and practice literature on community-focused flood risk management and draws on over 20 years of research and experience of working with diverse at-risk communities to outline the misconceptions and barriers to risk management, and the opportunities for progress.
She says the first misconception about flood mitigation is that it can be solved purely through state-funded engineering solutions.
« Investing in large infrastructure projects as the sole flood management solution simply hasn’t reduced ecological, financial and even sentimental losses, » she explains.
