Urban flooding in Australia: Policy development and implementation

This paper presents a review of Australian urban riverine flooding. By world standards the Australian flood problem is relatively small, though there are pockets of development subject to regular severe inundation. In the past, government response to flooding was ad hoc and characterized by structural adjustments. The 1970s and 1980s, however, have seen a major shift in approach. The new approach emphasizes resource management rather than construction, and consists of the announcement of policies, enactment of enabling legislation, and the introduction of procedures to help ensure that the widest range of flood damage reduction measures are considered. The changes are evident at both the federal and state levels of government.
Though problems remain, particularly at the local government level, where ultimate responsibility for policy implementation generally rests, the authors feel there are good grounds for optimism. Some suggestions for future policy are offered and the importance of public safety is stressed.     

美国防洪政策演变

回顾了近３００年来美国防洪战略转移的历史进程。美国陆军工程兵团曾根据国家防洪与发展航运的需要,实施“堤防万能”的防洪政策,然而,１９２７年的大洪水冲毁了“堤防万能”的神话,迫使国会通过１９２８年的防洪法,进行水库、行洪区、分洪区与堤防协调防洪。随着联邦洪水及其它灾害救济费用的不断攀升,促使美国颁布１９６８年的洪水保险法与１９７３年的洪水灾害防御法,实行洪水风险区划与土地利用规划,以减轻洪水灾害。１     

中国实行洪水保险的可行性研究

在回顾洪水保险实施现状的基础上，指出了我国洪水保险与世界洪水保险的差距，根据我国洪水灾害的特点和我国经济体制的特点，提出了符合我国国情的洪水保险措施：建立洪水保险准备金是进行洪水保险的前提，洪水保险的特殊性决定了洪水保险不可能是个营利性的保险，因此要保证洪水保险的正常运行必须有社会和国家的扶持，洪水保险机构应按流域设立，中国洪水灾害发生的空间特点决定了洪水保险机构只能按流域设置，洪水灾害发生的时间特点决定了洪水保险的对象必须是固定资产，而不应该是流动资产，遭受洪水灾害影响最大的是农田，因此农田应该是洪水保险的对象，不应该是种植在农田里的农作物，另外可以通过农业保险对不同农作物进行保险，洪水保险需要洪水风险的分析和研究作技术支撑，没有科学的洪水风险分析，洪水保险很难顺利进行，加强与洪水保险有关的各方面法律法规的建立，在洪水保险法中明确界定洪水保险的保险对象，明确保险双方的义务和权利。     

Policy options for managing flood insurance

In much of the developed world, private sector insurance plays an important but often underappreciated role in the management of natural disasters. Insurance works by spreading individual and independent risks across all policyholders. This notion succeeds for uncorrelated risks such as theft and motor accidents, but is problematic where risks are highly correlated in space and time, as in the case of natural hazards. Insurers transfer much of this risk to international reinsurers who are guided by the principle that natural catastrophes in different parts of the world are uncorrelated. Global diversification allows reinsurers to confer to direct insurers the same assurance that insurers offer their policyholders. This paper outlines these principles and poses questions as to how a government might respond when insurers assess some risks as uninsurable. It considers a range of policy options including some that seek to avoid situations where interference by governments in the marketplace has proved unhelpful. A key paradigm is that insurance premiums should reflect actual risk in order to encourage homeowners, planners and government decision makers to reduce risks. While our focus is riverine flood risk, the principles can be generalized to a wide range of natural hazards.     

Successes and failures of compulsory risk mitigation: re‐evaluating the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool

The Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP) is one of the best practices of public–private partnerships in an emerging market designed to reduce economic losses from disasters. This paper reviews the application of this compulsory mechanism along with data relating to the performance of the scheme following recent earthquakes in Turkey. We also consider the current perceptions of Turkish society towards the TCIP and how they can be enhanced. Our conclusions aim to assist stakeholders in government, homeowners, insurance companies, media, banks and civil society to appreciate the value of the system and key actions necessary to improve it.     

浙江沿海台风灾害区农房防灾避险体系探讨

台风灾害是浙江省的主要自然灾害之一。根据实地考察数据与分析资料,通过对沿海现有农房防灾能力分析,指出了造成部分农房避灾能力薄弱的原因,然后从农房防御强风能力建设、农房防灾减灾保障体系、农房规划建设管理体系、农村避灾安置场所建设、农房救助体系等方面探讨了构建农房防灾避险体系所要采取的应对措施。     

Repetitive flood victims and acceptance of FEMA mitigation offers: an analysis with community-system policy implications

Of all natural disasters, flooding causes the greatest amount of economic and social damage. The United States' Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) uses a number of hazard mitigation grant programmes for flood victims, including mitigation offers to relocate permanently repetitive flood loss victims. This study examines factors that help to explain the degree of difficulty repetitive flood loss victims experience when they make decisions about relocating permanently after multiple flood losses. Data are drawn from interviews with FEMA officials and a survey of flood victims from eight repetitive flooding sites. The qualitative and quantitative results show the importance of rational choices by flood victims in their mitigation decisions, as they relate to financial variables, perceptions of future risk, attachments to home and community, and the relationships between repetitive flood loss victims and the local flood management officials who help them. The results offer evidence to suggest the value of a more community-system approach to FEMA relocation practices.     

The interplay between climate change and disaster risk reduction policy: evidence from Mexico

Mexico gained worldwide reputation for its efforts to develop both climate change (CC) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies at the national and international levels. However, the integration of agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Hyogo and Sendai Frameworks into the national institutional setting has been challenging in terms of creating a coherent national risk reduction policy. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the interplay between DRR and CC domains; it provides evidence for the situation in Mexico by comparing the institutions and main actors in both fields as well as the financial and operational instruments currently in force. The comparison is based on institutions’ jurisdictions, priorities and lines of action. This paper synthesises the most important policy instruments, their meeting points and their contradictions and discusses the implications of such policy setting for the implementation of effective CC risk policies. The study depicts a fragmented policy interface with serious shortcomings in terms of the institutional design necessary to coordinate actions. The article concludes that, despite the multiple conceptual and political intersections between both policy fields, the implementation of specific, shared actions would hardly overcome the difficulties imposed by the current, fragmented normative frameworks and jurisdictions.     

湖北四湖流域的洪涝灾害与景观生态建设

对湖北四湖流域洪涝灾害的灾变趋势进行了分析,讨论了流域的景观生态特征及其对洪涝灾害的影响,提出了若干景观生态建设的对策。     

Household adjustment to flood risk: a survey of coastal residents in Texas and Florida,United States

Individual households have increasingly borne responsibility for reducing the adverse impacts of flooding on their property. Little observational research has been conducted, however, at the household level to examine the major factors contributing to the selection of a particular household adjustment. This study addresses the issue by evaluating statistically the factors influencing the adoption of various household flood hazard adjustments. The results indicate that respondents with higher‐value homes or longer housing tenure are more likely to adopt structural and expensive techniques. In addition, the information source and the Community Rating System (CRS) score for the jurisdiction where the household is located have a significant bearing on household adjustment. In contrast, proximity to risk zones and risk perception yield somewhat mixed results or behave counter to assumptions in the literature. The study findings provide insights that will be of value to governments and decision‐makers interested in encouraging homeowners to take protective action given increasing flood risk.     

长江荆江分蓄洪区历史演变、前景和风险管理

依据社会经济统计数据、水文资料、遥感影像信息和实地调查资料，分析了荆江分蓄洪区在历史演变过程中形成的分洪与发展的矛盾及其在未来长江流域防洪体系中的重要作用，指出其风险管理的必要性。运用基于GIS栅格数据的二维水动力洪水动态演进模型，对荆江分蓄洪区1954年的分洪过程进行了模拟和验证，模拟了不同分洪规划方案下的洪水淹没范围，水深和水位，并结合现阶段社会经济发展情况，定量估算了农户和农业的分洪可能损失。在分洪损失评估基础上提出了荆江分蓄洪区引导人口合理发展、促进土地有效利用、开展防洪教育、实施洪水保险和确保安全运用预案等减轻洪水损失提高运用机率的洪水风险管理初步方案。     

Inequalities in exposure and awareness of flood risk in England and Wales

This paper explores the environmental inequalities of living in the floodplains of England and Wales and the differences in flood awareness of those 'at risk'. An area comparison is made between an etic, objective flood risk exposure, and an emic, subjective perception of that risk by social class. In all areas except the Midlands, the working classes were more likely to reside in the floodplains; the greatest exposure inequality is seen in the North East and Anglian regions. Flood awareness in the Anglian regions was much lower than average, but there were no significant class differences. In the Thames region, despite equal flood risk exposure between classes, the most deprived displayed the least awareness of flood risk. In the North East, inequalities in the distribution of flood risk exposure accompanied inequalities in perception, resulting in the least aware and most deprived experiencing the greatest flood risk.     

巨灾保险下减灾积极性的影响因素及激励措施——基于美国巨灾保险项目的经验

讨论了保险的损失补偿职能和防灾减灾功能的关系,分析了巨灾保险框架下影响被保险人、保险人和其他利害方减灾积极性的多种因素,并基于美国的实践经验,从巨灾保险制度自身设计、政府支持和社会其他利害方的配合这三个角度剖析了调动防灾减灾积极性的各种手段和政策措施。这些经验对我国巨灾保险体系的构建具有一定的借鉴意义。研究结论表明,在合理的制度下,巨灾保险将发挥重要的防灾减灾功能。     

Models of best practice in flood risk communication and management

Risk communication plays an increasingly central role in flood risk management, but there is a variety of conflicting advice about what does – and should – get transmitted, why, how, and to whom. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the underlying normative and conceptual models on which those competing assessments of ‘good’ risk communication depend. To that end, the paper identifies four broad models, or approaches, to risk communication: a risk message model of information transfer; a risk instrument model of behavioural change; a risk dialogue model of participatory deliberation; and a risk government model of self-regulation and normalization. These models differ in their theoretical and disciplinary origins and associated philosophical and political commitments, and consequently they define the basic purpose, practice, and future prospects of flood risk communication in quite different ways. Unless these different models of ‘good’ risk communication are acknowledged and understood, efforts to identify best practice for flood risk management are likely to produce inconsistent, if not contradictory, recommendations.     

Flood risk and inequalities between ethnic groups in the floodplains of England and Wales

Previous research has shown that many vulnerable communities experience disproportional exposure to flood risk. This paper, though, is the first to look at broad ethnic/racial group differences in the United Kingdom. It contends that differences in culture and language, especially those of new immigrants, bestow vulnerabilities on such communities, resulting in a lack of knowledge that enables people to be aware, to be prepared, or to recover expediently after a flood emergency. Using UK 2011 Census data and Environment Agency flood maps, the paper demonstrates that it is the non‐white communities in Wales that confront the most disproportionate level of flood risk: 23 per cent as compared to 11.4 per cent of their white neighbours. In contrast, the difference in flood risk between white and non‐white ethnic/racial groups in regions of England is within a range of plus or minus two per cent, except for in Yorkshire and The Humber where white populations face a much greater risk of flooding.     

中国与荷兰洪水风险分析方法的比较研究

基于洪水风险的定义,从洪灾发生概率、洪灾后果评估、风险评价指标和防洪标准经济优化决策原则等方面阐述了中荷两国在洪水风险分析研究方面的异同,初步分析了存在差别的原因以及两种方法的特点.在分别应用中国和荷兰现有风险评估方法分析安庆市堤防圈的洪水风险的基础上,探讨了将两国的风险分析方法进行整合的思路.算例表明,将堤防的工程风险与洪水本身出现的水文风险相结合,并考虑在不同洪水位下损失的差异的方法是与洪灾发生机理相符,综合考虑了各种不确定因素的、切合我国洪灾特点的一种值得进一步深入研究的新方法.     

我国海岸带灾害成因分析及减灾对策

近年来海岸带灾害越来越成为制约海岸带－我国最重要的经济带社会、经济和环境可持续发展的重要因素。本文在全球变化和人类活动影响的背景下,分析探讨了我国海岸带灾害的基本成因,并提出了相应的概念性减灾对策框架,海岸带生态环境的脆弱性,全球变化（相对海平面变化、气候异常）和人类活动是导致我国海岸带灾害的3个主要方面。据此,认为减灾的关键在于合理规范人类行为,保护和改善本已十分脆弱的海岸带生态环境,使人与自然界和谐相处;对于全球变化诱发的灾害,则力求基于科学认识与预测,在海岸带开发中合理规划建设,做到未雨绸缪,实现海岸带社会经济可持续发展。     

The consequences and policy implications of urban encroachment into flood-risk areas: the case of Ibadan

Urban encroachment on floodplains has exacerbated flood disasters owing to the reduction in the floodplain’s capacity to mitigate flooding, thereby bringing more settlements and people at flood risk. This study examined the consequences and policy implications of urban encroachment into Ibadan’s flood-risk areas. The survey-based study relied on primary and secondary data, with multistage sampling procedures selecting 15% of the flood-affected buildings in 2011, from which a structured questionnaire was administered to 402 households. The study revealed that the institutional arrangements with respect to responsibilities, regulations and control of urban floodplains were fragmented and non-participatory. At least 62% of all the affected buildings encroached into the statutory setbacks to rivers. Household property lost/damaged included domestic goods (75%), domestic animals and pets (60%), working instruments/machines (31%), the source of domestic water (34%) and vehicles (29%). Strong direct correlations were found between the urban and peri-urban communities in (1) the number of damaged/lost property and (2) the number of households that suffered health-related challenges. The paper recommends that the overall co-ordination of flood management activities be entrusted to an institution that can assume responsibility for legal, technical, administrative and financial matters related to urban planning and flood-risk management.     

中国水旱灾害特点及水利减灾措施效果排序研究

改革开放以来,农村减灾防灾投入不断加强,水利减灾措施对农业发展做出了巨大贡献。特别是2011年中央进一步强调加强水利基础设施建设的重要作用,决定在"十二五"期间加大水利投资,新一轮的水利建设正在全国全面展开。为了更有效地发挥水利综合减灾措施的作用,合理地进行投入,科学配置各种水利减灾资源,必须了解和掌握灾害承受体如水库、堤防等的承灾能力状况,以指导我们合理安排水利减灾投入。应用灰色关联分析法对各个减灾措施的效果进行了排序分析,并据此提出了对今后投入调整的建议。     

Environmental knowledge and human experience: using a historical analysis of flooding in Ireland to challenge contemporary risk narratives and develop creative policy alternatives

Focusing on three of the largest coastal cities in the Republic of Ireland, this paper highlights the importance of a historical analysis of flood hazards in contextualising current events and potential future risks. Over the last decade, the cities of Dublin, Cork and Galway have experienced several major coastal, river and pluvial floods. In the aftermath of these floods, two distinct but related narratives have dominated public discourse and official responses. The first narrative presents recent floods as unprecedented and as possible evidence of climate change. The second constructs floods primarily as natural events and assumes that the optimal means of reducing flood losses is to prevent flood events. In this paper, I suggest that these narratives are not supported by a historical analysis of exposure and vulnerability to flood hazards in Irish cities. This paper draws primarily on newspaper archives to construct a record of past flooding that challenges these narratives in several ways and in doing so offers lessons for similar cities in other countries. I contend that these narratives are perpetuated by a narrow form of knowledge production (quantitative risk assessment) and a narrow range of data (numeric instrumental records). Incorporating a broader range of sources and data types into risk and vulnerability assessments may illuminate more creative strategies for reducing both contemporary and future flood losses.