Mitigation of the Adverse Consequences of Floods for Human Life, Infrastructure, and the Environment

Abstract

Floods endanger the lives and health of the population, cultural heritage and the environment and cause damage to property while limiting economic activity. It is not possible to prevent all flooding, but the authors can determine the amount of flood damage and subsequently estimate the measure of flood risks. Determining the measure of flood risks is desirable particularly for the proposal of effective flood-protection measures. The transition from flood protection to complete flood management is implemented in the European Union under the requirements of Directive 2007/60/EC on the assessment and management of flood risk. The directive consolidated national approaches to flood management and control and likewise brought parallel development in the field of assessment and management of flood risk by member states of the European Union. The aim of the directive as well as of this paper is to mitigate the adverse consequences for human health, infrastructure, and the environment associated with floods. The goal of the paper is to develop a general methodology for effective flood-protection measures according to the objectives of flood risk management. The proposed methodology uses the risk analysis method. Results are presented separately for damage to property, which is expressed in monetary value; damage to the environment, which is expressed in categories of environmental degradation (marginal, minor, intermediate, major); and loss of human lives, which is expressed in terms of the number of potential losses for different return periods of discharge (Q5, Q10, Q50, Q100, Q1000). The calculation of flood risk facilitates the selection of effective flood-protection measures in the relevant area.