Flood Risk Prediction and Management

**3**

**Chapter 1**

**Abstract**

**1. Introduction**

Management

*Guangwei Huang*

New Frontiers in Flood Risk

understanding of, and new approaches to, flood risk management.

and (3) exposure assessment. Mathematically, it can be expressed:

or community such as water supply system.

**Keywords:** vulnerability, framework, flooding time, flood duration, Ec0-DRR

Flood disaster management includes flood risk assessment, risk mitigation, preparedness, and emergency response and rehabilitation efforts. It can also be classified into before, during, and after event activities. A flood risk assessment is an assessment of the risk of flooding from all flooding mechanisms and consists of three components: (1) hazard identification, (2) vulnerability analysis,

Risk = Hazard × Vulnerability × Exposure (1)

According to UN-ISDR [1], hazard can be defined as a dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity, or condition that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage. It can be quantified by a probability of occurrence within a specified period of time and within a given area and given intensity. The term exposure is used to indicate elements subject to potential damage due to a hazard. Elements here may be referred to population, houses, facilities, or physical and life infrastructure essential to the functioning of a society

There are many aspects of vulnerability, related to physical, social, economic, and environmental conditions (see, for example, Birkmann [2]). Therefore, vulnerability can be defined in a number of different ways from as simple a notion as the degree of damage to an object exposed to a given hazard, to a more sophisticated one such as the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system, or asset

Flood risk management has been studied extensively and intensively in many academic fields from civil engineering, sociology, economics, culture, and even psychology. However, the fact that flooding accounts for a greater number of damaging events than any other type of natural events worldwide on an yearly scale proves that our understanding of flooding is still insufficient, flawed, and fragmented. This chapter intends to shed new light on a number of issues that deserve more comprehensive study in order to advance flood risk management. As a result, a new two-layer framework of vulnerability is proposed, which can lead to a better
