1 WMO: Climate and Water Departmentwww.apfm.info WMO Training Workshop on Integrated Flood Management for countries in Western Asia and the Arab region Floods and the Development: Towards Integrated Flood Management May 2009, Esteghlal Hotel, Tehran, Iran AVINASH TYAGI Director, Climate and Water

2 Settling on floodplains poses great risks SPIEGEL ONLINE 2004 and at the same time has enormous advantages

3 Flood losses increase, but…

4 Developing Countries are Hit the Hardest

IWRM Community Participation Legal Aspects Non-structural Development Stages in Flood Management - time Structural

6 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

7 Why Integrated Flood Management

8 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

9 Challenges of Flood Management Population increase Securing livelihoods Ecosystem Conservation

10 Climate Variability and Change Absolute safety from flooding is a myth cumulus.geol.iastate.edu / Changes in the decision making processes (Community Participation) Challenges of Flood Management

11  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

12 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.

13 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: 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.”

14 –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: Integrates……? Integrates……?

15 –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: Towards a sustainable development

16 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

17 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

18 Framework for Risk Management Risk Transfer Risk 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 Sharing Education and training Governance and Organizational Coordination and Cooperation

19 with a multidisciplinary approach –Appropriate Institutional structures for proper coordination and linkages; –Enabling participatory processes; and –Information management and exchange mechanisms. Requirements of IFM Clear 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.

20 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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