Challenges and Perspectives in Flood Risk Management and Resilience

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 12461

Special Issue Editors

Centre for Water Systems, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Interests: hydraulic modelling; flood damage and impact assessment; critical infrastructure; flash flooding; urban inundation; dual drainage; near real-time forecasting; flood risk management; climate change adaptations; resilience strategies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Engineering, University of Messina, Contrada Di Dio, 98158 Sant'Agata, Messina, Italy
Interests: flood risk management and flood defence design; flood propagation modelling; flash floods and debris flows; flood vulnerability and damage evaluation; pluvial flooding; urban drainage systems; flood early warning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University
Interests: Computational hydraulics; high-performance flood modelling; modelling of landslides and debris flows; real-time flood forecasting; catchment systems modelling; coupled human and natural systems modelling
Department Urban Water Management, Eawag, Dübendorf, ZH, Switzerland
Interests: urban hydrology; hydraulic modelling accuracy; data analytics; urban drainage; infrastructure asset management

Special Issue Information

Flooding is a natural disaster affecting the largest number of people than any other types of disaster with a significant socioeconomic impact. Improved flood risk management is critical to strengthening societal resilience to better protect the population’s lives and assets. This Special Issue will focus on new developments in flood resilience in order to identify existing challenges and future perspectives on risk management innovations. Contributions widely related to the following topics are welcome:

  • Numerical methods, artificial intelligence and data analytics in flood modelling;
  • Holistic hazard impact assessment;
  • Integrated approaches for risk management and damage reduction;
  • International, national and regional flood resilience strategies and policies;
  • Hazard mitigation decision support;
  • Climate change adaptations;
  • Critical infrastructure and cascading effects;
  • Innovations and technologies in smart management;
  • Hydroinformatics and risk communication;
  • Citizen science and community engagement;
  • Emergency response and crisis management.
Dr. Albert S. Chen
Prof. Giuseppe T. Aronica
Prof. Quihua Liang
Dr. Joao Paulo Leitao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • adaptation
  • climate change
  • critical infrastructure (CI)
  • disaster risk reduction (DRR)
  • flood resilience
  • flood risk management
  • strategic planning

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 3134 KiB  
Article
Theoretical Description of the Hydrodynamic Process after Barrier Lake Formation and Emergency Responses Implementation
by Jingwen Wang, Guangming Tan, Caiwen Shu, Chong Zhang, Rui Wang, Shasha Han and Qigui Yang
Water 2021, 13(18), 2506; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13182506 - 12 Sep 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2038
Abstract
Barrier lakes are secondary disasters with associated landslides and debris flow that can cause serious damage to the downstream populations and areas. Existing studies are lacking in comprehensive descriptions of the rescue process, where the main channel streamflow varies and topographic erosion develops, [...] Read more.
Barrier lakes are secondary disasters with associated landslides and debris flow that can cause serious damage to the downstream populations and areas. Existing studies are lacking in comprehensive descriptions of the rescue process, where the main channel streamflow varies and topographic erosion develops, as well as engineering disposal performs. This paper aimed to theoretically investigate the formation and emergency responses to barrier lakes using on-the-spot investigation and calculus theory. The results showed that the formation of a barrier lake led to a sudden variation in the flow-change rate (normal to infinite). However, after implementing emergency measures, this rate returned to normal. The whole rescue process could be regarded as the accumulation of disposal effects. Volume changes in the main streams were expressed by a differential equation of the lake surface area and water level variations. In addition, a corresponding theoretical description of flow discharges was also given when engineering measures such as the excavation of diversion channels and engineering blasting were adopted. Specifically, the theoretical expressions of flow discharge were given respectively in the developing stage and breach stable stage after the excavation of diversion channels. The flow discharge through certain sections was also described theoretically when engineering blasting was chosen to widen and deepen the cross-section of the diversion channels. Overall, this paper mathematicizes and theorizes the existing emergency measures, which helps to better understand their implementation principles and application requirements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Perspectives in Flood Risk Management and Resilience)
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13 pages, 2213 KiB  
Article
Real-Time Probabilistic Flood Forecasting Using Multiple Machine Learning Methods
by Dinh Ty Nguyen and Shien-Tsung Chen
Water 2020, 12(3), 787; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12030787 - 12 Mar 2020
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4174
Abstract
Probabilistic flood forecasting, which provides uncertain information in the forecasting of floods, is practical and informative for implementing flood-mitigation countermeasures. This study adopted various machine learning methods, including support vector regression (SVR), a fuzzy inference model (FIM), and the k-nearest neighbors ( [...] Read more.
Probabilistic flood forecasting, which provides uncertain information in the forecasting of floods, is practical and informative for implementing flood-mitigation countermeasures. This study adopted various machine learning methods, including support vector regression (SVR), a fuzzy inference model (FIM), and the k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) method, to establish a probabilistic forecasting model. The probabilistic forecasting method is a combination of a deterministic forecast produced using SVR and a probability distribution of forecast errors determined by the FIM and k-NN method. This study proposed an FIM with a modified defuzzification scheme to transform the FIM’s output into a probability distribution, and k-NN was employed to refine the probability distribution. The probabilistic forecasting model was applied to forecast flash floods with lead times of 1–3 hours in Yilan River, Taiwan. Validation results revealed the deterministic forecasting to be accurate, and the probabilistic forecasting was promising in view of a forecasted hydrograph and quantitative assessment concerning the confidence level. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Perspectives in Flood Risk Management and Resilience)
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30 pages, 18247 KiB  
Article
A Cost-Effectiveness Protocol for Flood-Mitigation Plans Based on Leeds’ Boxing Day 2015 Floods
by Onno Bokhove, Mark A. Kelmanson, Thomas Kent, Guillaume Piton and Jean-Marc Tacnet
Water 2020, 12(3), 652; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12030652 - 28 Feb 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5046
Abstract
Inspired by the Boxing Day 2015 flood of the River Aire in Leeds, UK, and subsequent attempts to mitigate adverse consequences of flooding, the goals considered are: (i) to revisit the concept of flood-excess volume (FEV) as a complementary diagnostic for classifying flood [...] Read more.
Inspired by the Boxing Day 2015 flood of the River Aire in Leeds, UK, and subsequent attempts to mitigate adverse consequences of flooding, the goals considered are: (i) to revisit the concept of flood-excess volume (FEV) as a complementary diagnostic for classifying flood events; (ii) to establish a new roadmap/protocol for assessing flood-mitigation schemes using FEV; and, (iii) to provide a clear, graphical cost-effectiveness analysis of flood mitigation, exemplified for a hypothetical scheme partially based on actual plans. We revisit the FEV concept and present it as a three-panel graph using thresholds and errors. By re-expressing FEV as a 2 m -deep square lake of equivalent capacity, one can visualise its dimensions in comparison with the river valley considered. Cost-effectiveness of flood-mitigation measures is expressed within the FEV square-lake; different scenarios of our hypothetical flood-mitigation scheme are then presented and assessed graphically, with each scenario involving a combination, near and further upstream of Leeds, of higher (than existing) flood-defence walls, enhanced flood-plain storage sites, giving-room-to-the-river bed-widening and natural flood management. Our cost-effectiveness analysis is intended as a protocol to compare and choose between flood-mitigation scenarios in a quantifiable and visual manner, thereby offering better prospects of being understood by a wide audience, including citizens and city-council planners. Using techniques of data analysis combined with general river hydraulics, common-sense and upper-bound estimation, we offer an accessible check of flood-mitigation plans. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Perspectives in Flood Risk Management and Resilience)
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