1. Floods: An EU Directive to coordinate and reduce risks
Wouter Vanneuville
Flooding in Europe: new risks and strategies to build resilience
Public Forum Event at the UNWCDRR
Saturday 14 March 2015, Sendai (Japan)

2. The 2002 floods in central Europe
Worked as a trigger to complement the EU water legislation with a directive on floods
Focus is on large, international events
Historic power station in Prague, flooded during 2002 Vltava flood
Flooded Elbe in Dresden August 2002
Flooding in Budapest

3. Water Framework Directive (2000)*
Is mainly about water quality and « good ecological status »
Some quantity related aspects included, e.g. hydromorphological changes
Floods are not at the core, neither is climate change
To come to integrated water management, a floods directive (and communication on water scarcity and droughts were needed)
* Directive 2000/60/EC of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework
for Community action in the field of water policyDirective

4. Floods Directive (2007)
Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the assessment and management of flood risks
Coordination is needed, with the WFD

5. Floods as environment directive?

6. Coordination beyond the Environment Directives
Civil protection is explicitly mentioned, to improve preparedness and resilience
The EU Solidarity Fund is mentioned as an instrument to provide financial assistance (only during an emergency, not during preparation)

7. Consequences of flooding
The EU Floods directive gives equal importance to
Human Health (social)
Environment (environment)
Cultural Heritage (social)
Economic Activity (economy)
Underlining that floods are natural but human activities can cause adverse impacts

8. Reduce adverse impacts
On the scale of river catchments (river basin districts)
1 flood risk management plan per RBD

9. International coordination needed
40 out of 11 RBDs in Europe are international
Over 60% of territory
International coordination of RBMPs

10. Not only rivers
All types of flooding have to be assessed under the EU floods directive
In practice mainly rivers, coastal, pluvial (overland flow), and groundwater
A structured guidance for the reporting is necessary to get an EU overview, based on source, mechanism and characteristics of flooding

11. Source, mechanism and characteristics of flooding
Fluvial
Natural exceedance
Flash Flood
Pluvial
Defence exceedance
Snow Melt Flood
Groundwater
Defence or infrastructural failure
Other rapid onset
Sea Water
Blockage / Restriction
Medium onset flood
Artificial water-bearing infrastructure
Other
Slow onset flood
No data available
Debris flow
High velocity flow
Deep flood

12. Different stages in the Directive
From an evaluation over detailed mapping to a planning (including programme of measures)
Evaluation:
Inventory of past floods
Modelling potential future floods
Where, (when), but also consequences

13. Past flood data – the GOOD and the BAD
Detailed insight in European past flood consequences is hard to get
Best Available Data (BAD) have to come from Member States or (re-) insurance companies
Globally only open-access data (GOOD) are not complete, have a reporting bias, contain errors

14. EU past floods database as intermediate product
Less details than national inventories (only those events significant at European scale)
Based on Member States reporting for the FD, combined with information from global databases

15. Evaluate to prioritize
Based on past floods andavailable modelling
Selection of areas of potential significant flood risk areas (APSFR)
Detailed mapping of the APSFR
3 scenarios (different probabilities of flooding)
Physical characteristics and impacts

16. Structuring the impact for the reporting
Human Health
Environment
Cultural Heritage
Economic Impact
Water body status
Cultural assets
Property
Community
Protected areas
Landscape
Infrastructure
Other
Pollution sources
Rural land use
Economic activity

17. Towards a flood risk management plan
To be available by 22 December 2015 (and reported 22 March 2016)
Coordinated with the WFD River Basin Management Plan
Coordinated content and consultation process
In some areas is a complete integration of both planning instruments

18. Prevention, protection and preparedness
Different communities use different terminology!

19. In the Floods Directive
Prevention
Preventing damage cause by floods:
By avoiding constructions in present and future flood-prone areas
By adapting existing receptors
By promoting appropriate land-use
Protection
Both structural and non-structural measures to reduce the likelihood of floods in a specific location
Preparedness
Informing the population about flood risk and what to do in an event of flooding, including early warning systems and emergency response
Recovery and Review / Lessons learned
Returning to normal conditions asap and mitigating the different impacts

20. Measures No Action Preparedness Flood forecasting and warning
Prevention
Avoidance
Emergency event response planning / contingency planning
Removal or relocation
Public awareness and preparedness
Reduction
Other preparedness
Other prevention
Recovery and review (planning for these phases)
Individual and societal recovery
Protection
Natural flood management / runoff and catchment management
Environmental recovery
Water flow regulation
Other recovery and review
Channel, coastal and floodplain works
Other
Surface water management
Other protection

21. We don’t know it all (now)
Long-term planning is a useful instrument
But … progressive insights in climate change, socio-economic and demographic developments …

22. Revision
Whole cycle from evaluation to planning and prioritizing measures is done every 6 years

23. Public participation
Making Available (inform)
Consult
Preliminary flood risk assessment and areas of potential significant flood risk
Flood hazard and risk maps
Flood risk management plans
No obligation to do more, although good examples (e.g. on local scale when implementing measures exist)

24. Public participation

25. participation / network
Cooperation is a necessity to fulfill the Floods Directive requirements to include: spatial planning, land use, environmental objectives, nature conservation, navigation … and to be compatible with infrastructural requirements …

26. International cooperation
In the interest of solidarity no measures with significant negative up- or downstream effect shall be taken unless coordinated and with an agreed solution in between member states

27. Conclusions
Almost at the end of 1st cycle of the Floods Directive (by end of 2015), success but improvements for 2nd cycle possible
Structured reporting allows a better EU overview of past events, impacts, measures etc.
Bridging many communities (environment, spatial planning, DRR, …): “glossaries” are needed
Unknown issues remain, but revision cycle allows action “now”
Stakeholder involvement often limited to information providing, consultation of plans is not co-creation