Financial Schemes For Resilient Flood Recovery

Financial schemes for flood recovery, if properly designed and implemented, might increase flood resilience. However, options for the increase of flood resilience during the recovery phase are to a large extent overlooked and the diversity of existing schemes shows that there has been a lack of consensus on how to achieve resilient flood recovery. Financial Schemes for Resilient Flood Recovery investigates how the implementation of financial schemes (government relief subsidies, insurance schemes, buy-outs, etc.) might increase flood resilience. The chapters included in this edited volume address the following questions: Shall government relief subsidies exist when there is flood insurance in place, and, if so, how might they both be coordinated? Where (or how) to decide about build back better incentives and where to go for planned relocation programs? What is the distributional equity of financial schemes for flood recovery, and has it been sufficiently treated? The book covers different approaches to flood recovery schemes with specific intervention rationales in different countries. Empirical evidence provided clearly shows the great diversity of financial flood recovery schemes. This diversity of state-funded schemes, private-based insurance schemes, and hybrids as well as planned relocation schemes indicates a lack of a consistent and strategic approach in flood risk management and flood resilience about flood recovery. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Environmental Hazards.

Financial schemes for flood recovery, if properly designed and implemented, might increase flood resilience. However, options for the increase of flood resilience during the recovery phase are to a large extent overlooked and the diversity of existing schemes shows that there has been a lack of consensus on how to achieve resilient flood recovery. Financial Schemes for Resilient Flood Recovery investigates how the implementation of financial schemes (government relief subsidies, insurance schemes, buy-outs, etc.) might increase flood resilience. The chapters included in this edited volume address the following questions: Shall government relief subsidies exist when there is flood insurance in place, and, if so, how might they both be coordinated? Where (or how) to decide about build back better incentives and where to go for planned relocation programs? What is the distributional equity of financial schemes for flood recovery, and has it been sufficiently treated? The book covers different approaches to flood recovery schemes with specific intervention rationales in different countries. Empirical evidence provided clearly shows the great diversity of financial flood recovery schemes. This diversity of state-funded schemes, private-based insurance schemes, and hybrids as well as planned relocation schemes indicates a lack of a consistent and strategic approach in flood risk management and flood resilience about flood recovery. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Environmental Hazards.

Flooding from extreme storm events has affected many communities across the country, causing billions of dollars of damage annually. Moreover, climate change projections suggest that storms will likely become more powerful in many regions of the country in the future. In light of these trends, many communities are recognizing the need to improve disaster recovery and long-term flood resilience planning. Communities throughout Vermont faced this reality when Tropical Storm Irene hit in 2011, devastating infrastructure, communities, and lives. In 2012, in the wake of Irene, the state of Vermont requested technical assistance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The assistance focused on incorporating smart growth principles into state policies, local development regulations, and Hazard Mitigation Plans to increase community flood resilience. "Flood resilience" means measures taken to reduce the vulnerability of communities to damages from flooding and to support long-term recovery after an extreme flood. Smart growth and more environmentally and economically sustainable approaches to development can help communities become more resilient to future flooding by protecting vulnerable undeveloped lands, siting development in safer locations, and designing development so it is less likely to be damaged in a flood. Communities that identify areas that are safer for development and then implement smart growth approaches in those areas will be most successful at creating more flood-resilient places. EPA's assistance provided options for communities and the state to consider as they work to recover, rebuild, and plan for a more resilient future. These trends are creating a sense of urgency among communities, particularly those in states like Vermont that are expected to experience increased flooding in the future, to look for better ways to deal with flooding and build flood resilience. Resilience generally refers to "a capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant multi-hazard threats with minimum damage to social well-being, the economy, and the environment." This project focused specifically on resilience to flooding, including a community's capacity to plan for, respond to, and recover from floods.

Flooding claims many lives worldwide each year. In addition, many more lives are affected by homelessness, disease and crop failures as a result of floods' destructiveness. The number of recent flood events coupled with climate change predictions and urban development, suggest that these statistics are likely to worsen in the future. Flooding in populated areas can cause substantial property damage as well as threaten human life. Apart form the obvious physical damage to buildings, contents and loss of life, there other more indirect losses that are often overlooked. These intangible impacts are generally associated with disruption to normal life as well as longer term health issues, including stress-related illness. The conference papers cover the following topics: Flood risk analysis, Flood risk management, Urban flood management, Flood forecasting, Risk assessment and decision making, Flood case studies, Community resilience to flooding, Energy preparedness and response, Critical infrastructure protection, Flood consequence assessment.

Disasters present a broad range of human, social, financial, economic and environmental impacts, with potentially long-lasting effects. This report applies the lessons from the OECD’s analysis of disaster risk financing practices and its risk guidance to the specific case of floods.

Planning for Flood Recovery and Long-Term Resilience in Vermont: Smart Growth Approaches for Disaster-Resilient Communities

Infrastructure—electricity, telecommunications, roads, water, and sanitation—are central to people’s lives. Without it, they cannot make a living, stay healthy, and maintain a good quality of life. Access to basic infrastructure is also a key driver of economic development. This report lays out a framework for understanding infrastructure resilience - the ability of infrastructure systems to function and meet users’ needs during and after a natural hazard. It focuses on four infrastructure systems that are essential to economic activity and people’s well-being: power systems, including the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity; water and sanitation—especially water utilities; transport systems—multiple modes such as road, rail, waterway, and airports, and multiple scales, including urban transit and rural access; and telecommunications, including telephone and Internet connections.

One-third of the annual natural disasters and economic losses, and more than half of the associated victims are flood related. A burgeoning global population and growing wealth, particularly in the last two or three decades, have increased the risk and the demand for flood protection. These features, together with climate change predictions and urban development, are affecting the way flood risk is managed. Knowledge and scientific tools play a role of paramount importance in the strain of coping with flooding problems, along with capacity building in the context of political and administrative frameworks. Therefore, governments need to establish clear institutional, financial and social mechanisms and processes for flood risk management in order to ensure the safety of people and property and, thereby, contribute to flood defence, prevention and recovery. This volume contains papers presented at the second International Conference on Flood Recovery, Innovation and Response. The conference provides a forum for researchers, academics and practitioners actively involved in improving and interchanging knowledge and expertise in a wide range of technical and management issues related to flooding and its devastating effects. The scientific topics presented at the conference on Flood Recovery Innovation and Response 2010 included: Flood Risk Analysis; Flood Risk Management; Urban Flood Management; Flood Forecasting; Risk Assessment and Decision Making; Flood Case Studies; Community Resilience to Flooding.

This book provides an important overview of how climate-driven natural hazards like river or pluvial floods, droughts, heat waves or forest fires, continue to play a central role across the globe in the 21st century. Urban resilience has become an important term in response to climate change. Resilience describes the ability of a system to absorb shocks and depends on the vulnerability and recovery time of a system. A shock affects a system to the extent that it becomes vulnerable to the event. This book focus examines how private property-owners might implement such measures or improve their individual coping and adaptive capacity to respond to future events. The book looks at the existence of various planning, legal, financial incentives and psychological factors designed to encourage individuals to take an active role in natural hazard risk management and through the presentation of theoretical discussions and empirical cases shows how urban resilience can be achieved. In addition, the book guides the reader through different conceptual frameworks by showing how urban regions are trying to reach urban resilience on privately-owned land. Each chapter focuses on different cultural, socio-economic and political backgrounds to demonstrate how different institutional frameworks have an impact.

Flood risks worldwide are being exacerbated due to urbanisation and the consequences of climate change. This poses a challenge to traditional managerial approaches to flood risk management that try to be 'fail-safe'. This book presents innovative and practical lessons on how to make flood risk management strategies 'safe-to-fail' and therewith more resilient. The book focuses on governance - rather than technical/managerial - approaches. As the book shows, new governance strategies are needed that ensure that flood risk management is not left to water managers alone. Various actors, including spatial planners, contingency agencies, NGOs and individual citizens, have a role to play in flood risk governance. Ten chapters assess different case studies from around the globe. These highlight the challenges and good practices related to learning, inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation, and debating and meeting the normative end-goals of flood risk governance. This book is essential reading for grounded scholars, reflexive policymakers and practitioners, and everyone else who is interested in contributing to more resilient and future-proof flood risk governance.