1WMO: Climate and Water Department www.apfm.info

WMO

Training Workshop on Integrated Flood Managementfor countries in Western Asia and the Arab region

Floods and the Development: Floods and the Development: Towards Integrated Flood ManagementTowards Integrated Flood Management

11-14 May 2009, Esteghlal Hotel, Tehran, Iran

AVINASH TYAGIAVINASH TYAGIDirector, Climate and WaterDirector, Climate and Water

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Settling on floodplains poses great risks

www.gaestehaus-loreley.de

SPIEGEL ONLINE 2004

and at the same time has enormous advantages

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Flood losses increase, but…

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Developing Countries are Hit the Hardest

51000 100 70 50 10

IWRM

Community Participation

Legal Aspects

Non-structural

Development Stages in Flood Management

- time

Structural

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Shortcomings of past FM Practices

–Ad-hoc and stand alone

–Reactive rather than proactive–Wrongly defined objective–Emphasis on structural measures –Monodisciplinary

–Lessons from past failure not learnt

Flood policy is a neglected water policy issue on the international as well as, in many cases, the national level

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Why Integrated Flood Management

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Sustainable Development

Development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own

needs.”

In the flood management context mainly on the viability of floodplain use in the long term

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Challenges of Flood Management

Population increase

Securing livelihoods

Ecosystem Conservation

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Climate Variability and Change

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itness.org

Absolute safety from flooding is a myth

cumulus.geol.iastate.edu/

Changes in the decision

making processes(Community Participation)

Challenges of Flood Management

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Flood Management in the context of Integrated Water Resources Management, aiming at:

– Sustainable development: balancing development needs and flood risks

– Maximizing net benefits from floodplains: ensure livelihood security and poverty alleviation thereby addressing vulnerability

– Minimizing loss of life: in particular through end-to-end FF&W Systems and preparedness planning for extreme events

– Environmental preservation: ecosystem health & services

Integrated Flood Management Integrated Flood Management

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Integrated Flood Management

Integrated Flood Management (IFM) refers to the

integration of land and water management in a river

basin using a combination of measures that focus on

coping with floods within a framework of IWRM and

adopting risk management principles while

recognizing that floods have beneficial impacts and

can never be fully controlled.

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• In developing countries with primarily agricultural economies, food security is synonymous of livelihood security.

• In developed economies as the flood plains have been exploited, the emphasis is on risk reduction

Integrated Flood Management: Integrated Flood Management: Maximizing net benefits from floodplains

“In the case of floods, the appropriate economic objective is thus to maximize the efficiency of use of the catchment and not to minimize flood losses. It can be easily shown that efficient flood management policy can be accompanied by a rise in both flood losses and the cost of flood management.”

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– Land and Water Management

– Upstream and Downstream

– Structural and Non-structural

– Short term and Long-term

– Local and basin level measures

– Top down and Bottom up decision making

– Development needs with ecologic and economic concerns

– Land and Water Management

– Upstream and Downstream

– Structural and Non-structural

– Short term and Long-term

– Local and basin level measures

– Top down and Bottom up decision making

– Development needs with ecologic and economic concerns

IFM: IFM: Integrates……?Integrates……?

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– Integrates and mixes strategies• Structural, Non-structural and Living with Floods

• Short-term and Long-term

• Local and basin level measures

– Balances development needs and environmental concerns

– Addresses all aspects of Flood Management• Scientific and Engineering

• Social Aspects

• Environmental Aspects

• Economic Aspects

• Legal and Institutional Aspects

– Adaptive Management

IFM: IFM: Towards a sustainable developmentTowards a sustainable development

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What is risk?

• Probability x Consequence• Hazard x Exposure x Vulnerability

• Example floods:– Hazard: probability of a particular discharge or

water level at a particular place– Exposure: Land and assets in the inundation area

of that flood– Vulnerability: ability/disability of the people or

assets to withstand, cope with or recover from the negative effects of that flood

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Changes in socio-economic systems

Land-use change, increasing exposure and damage potential – floodplain development, growing wealth in flood-prone areas

Changes in terrestrial systems

Land-cover change - urbanization, deforestation, elimination of wetlands and floodplains, river regulation

Changes in climate and atmospheric system

Holding capacity of the atmosphere, intense precipitation, seasonality, circulation patterns

How vulnerability and flood risk

Source: Kundzewicz & Schellnhuber, 2004

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Framework for Risk Management

Risk TransferRisk Identification and Assessment

Historical hazard data, analysis and changing hazard trends

Exposed assets & vulnerability

Risk quantification

Sectoral planning

Early warning systems

Emergency preparedness & planning

Catastrophe insurance/bond markets

Alternative risk transfer

Risk Reduction(Prevention & Mitigation)

Information and Knowledge SharingEducation and training

Governance and Organizational Coordination and

Cooperation

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with a multidisciplinary approach– Appropriate Institutional structures for proper

coordination and linkages;– Enabling participatory processes; and– Information management and exchange

mechanisms.

Requirements of IFMRequirements of IFM

Clear and objective policiesClear and objective policies• Comprehensive assessment and understanding of development opportunities and flood risks;• Multi-sectoral approach to reach the objectives;• Appropriate legislation and regulations; and• Innovative economic instruments.

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Integrated Flood Management: Objectives

–Sustainable development: balancing development needs and flood risks

–Maximizing net benefits: ensure livelihood security, poverty alleviation and managing

vulnerability–Minimizing loss of life

–Environmental preservation

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