Flood Risk Management: Interaction between Humans and Floods

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on advances in human–flood interactions through an interdisciplinary lens. Even though events of (extreme) flooding and flood (risk) management are not a new topic, recent examples in Europe and worldwide have revealed again that the aim of reducing flood-related risks to human health, the environment, infrastructure, and property has only been achieved to a limited extent by current flood risk management efforts. To mitigate flood risk in the future, a better understanding and management of the interlinkages between hydrological extremes and society is crucial. This research requires new conceptual frameworks and inter- or transdisciplinary approaches.

Thus, the scope of this issue includes hydro-social and socio-hydrological research on river floods, or flash floods, which critically reflects the advances which have been made in flood risk management but also looks at the areas which have been left out.

For example, in the European Union, the conditions for flood risk management have been improved since 2007 with the implementation of the European Flood Risk Management Directive (FRMD). Many new instruments, such as flood hazard and risk maps, building regulations, or the category of flood emergence areas, were introduced. For example, flood hazard and flood risk maps and corresponding management plans have been prepared based on historical discharge data, water levels, and hydrological and hydraulic modelling. However, recent examples have shown that the objective of the FRMD to reduce flood-related risks has only been achieved to a limited extent. It has been indicated that due to the changing climate, more hydrological extremes will happen. For example, in Germany, there is currently a drought in regions where we had seen substantial flooding last year’s same season.

We wonder, on the one hand, how people perceive these extreme differences. What effect has this had on the willingness for self-preparation and support of flood protection measures? On the other hand, we wonder why efforts such as the FRMD and its implementation have not been successful in mitigating the effects of flooding.

We invite the community to critically reflect on the advances that have been undertaken and which challenges still remain. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary research, which uses different methodologies to understand human–flood interactions. We welcome contributions related to the interactions between people and floods, but we especially encourage submissions on the following topics:

• Hydro-social and socio-hydrological research on flooding;
• Spatio–temporal dynamics and interdependencies;
• Influence of human activities on hazards and risks;
• Modelling approaches in integrated flood risk;
• Impact of uncertainty on flood perception;
• The perception and handling of uncertainty in flood risk management;
• New conceptualizations of the interlinkages and feedbacks between hydrological extremes and society;
• Flood governance;
• Co-development of policies, collaborative decision-making, and communication with stakeholders.

We are looking forward to gathering new insights into Flood Risk Management from an interdisplinary perspective,

Prof. Dr. Mariele Evers
Prof. Dr. Britta Höllermann
Guest Editors

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• human–flood system
• hydro-social
• socio-hydrology
• water governance
• flood risk management, integrated modelling, trans- and interdisciplinarity