Improving flood risk maps for communities and flood risk managers

A report suggesting ways of improving flood risk mapping in order to better suit the needs of affected communities and those responsible for managing flood risk.

• From: Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme and Environment Agency
• Published: 22 February 2021

• Category: Managing flood incidents
• Topics: Behavioural change, Communicating risk, Community participation, Community response and resilience and Emergency planning
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  Flood forecasting, Flood risk assessment, Flood warning, Health, safety and wellbeing, and Incident management
• Project status: Completed
• Project code: SC090015
• Date of completion: 31 March 2012

Documents

Recommendations for flood mapping in England and Wales: Findings from the RISK MAP ERA-NET CRUE project - summary (116KB) PDF

Recommendations for flood mapping in England and Wales: Findings from the RISK MAP ERA-NET CRUE project - technical report (2MB) PDF

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Details

The aim of this project was to enhance community resilience to flooding by improving flood mapping. Risk maps not only inform people about the risk of flooding but can also stimulate public participation in flood risk decision-making. This report suggests ways of improving flood risk mapping in order to better suit the needs of affected communities and those responsible for managing flood risk.

The research was based on four case studies across Europe (Austria, England and Germany). The case study sites were selected to be representative of different geographical conditions and catchment sizes.

Work was carried out in three stages and applied to the four case studies. This meant:

• reviewing the mapping approaches in the case studies
• focusing on improving flood risk maps
• setting out recommendations to improve flood maps and public involvement in the mapping process

The project adopted a workshop-based approach with at least two workshops for each case study. Workshop participants represented professionals involved in flood risk and members of the public. Following the initial workshops, maps were revised based on the feedback given before the revised maps were discussed at a second workshop.

This project ran from 2009 to 2012.

Published 22 February 2021