Deltares: Experts Aim to Achieve Broader Perspective on Flood Risks

Last week an article entitled ‘Floods and climate: emerging perspectives for flood risk assessment and management’ appeared in the professional journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.

In this article, 30 international hydrologists, including Laurens Bouwer of Deltares, advocate the creation of a stronger link between hydrological, climatic and environmental know-how so as to achieve a broader perspective on flood risks.

The relationship between climate change and flood risks

It is a known fact that river basins respond differently to changes in the climate, and this varying sensitivity could be utilised to make better predictions. There is also a need for a greater understanding of the physical causes of high water, which would benefit the interpretation of the statistical links. A stronger integration of hydrological know-how with social aspects (such as vulnerability and damage) could help to map risks better.

“More initiatives, in which parties with different fields of knowledge exchange information and data with one another, are essential if we are to make the connections between climate change and flood risks,” the experts stated.

Supported by European Geosciences Union (EGU)

The group of international hydrologists meet regularly during workshops supported by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). These workshops are organised to enable them to exchange thoughts and to combine the work carried out separately by experts in a joint article.

An EGU workshop on the validation of risk models will be organised at Deltares in Delft, the Netherlands, late this year.

[mappress]

Source: Deltares, August 7, 2014