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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI13010974/00001
Material Information
- Title:
- Five feet high and rising cities and flooding in the 21st century
- Series Title:
- Policy research working papers
- Alternate title:
- World Bank e-Library.
- Creator:
- Jha, Abhas
Bird, Alan
Lopez, Ana
Proverbs, David
Lamond, Jessica
Davies, John
Bhattacharya, Namrata
Papachristodoulou, Nikolaos
Barker, Robert
Bloch, Robin
World Bank. ( contributor )
Disaster Risk Reduction Program, Florida International University (DRR/FIU) ( summary contributor )
- Place of Publication:
- Washington, DC
- Publisher:
- World Bank
- Publication Date:
- 2011-05
- Copyright Date:
- 2011
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- eBook : Document : International government publication; 1 online resource (68 p.)
Notes
- Summary:
- This document addresses urban flooding and the negative impacts that large and small flood events have on the populations of cities and towns. The recommendations of this work will inform the Global Handbook for Urban Flood Risk Management commissioned by the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), which will provide decision-makers and stakeholders a guide on how to most effectively manage the risk of floods in rapidly urbanizing settings, within the context of climate change. Disaster statistics over the past decade or so have shown that flooding is becoming increasingly frequent, particularly in urban areas around the world. While major urban floods have received much of the international media attention, smaller recurring floods are just as disastrous, particularly because urban centers are nodes for major economic and social activities, which flooding often disrupts, causing losses beyond the mere physical damage of rising waters. In 2010, flooding affected 178 million people and was the most frequent of all natural disasters. In exceptional years damages due to flooding can exceed $40 billion. These significant losses are the result of a combination of both natural and human-induced factors, encapsulated by two global trends. In the near term, rapid and unplanned urbanization in developing countries is increasing the degree of exposure and vulnerability faced by a growing number of people and assets to flooding. In the longer-term, climate change along with its correlates, rising sea levels and extreme weather events, are likely to become more significant contributors to flood risks. The authors conclude that due to the uncertainties regarding climate change projections and associated risks, disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures need to be flexible enough to address a wide range of possible scenarios. This specifically means a movement away from a primary focus on hard-engineered defenses that redirect potential floodwaters away from cities, towards a greater emphasis on incremental non-structural measures that can be utilized to counteract various flood threats. As the predictability of the weather’s behavior becomes more difficult, so does adaptation. Thus, they call for the use of ‘no regret’ solutions that cover a broad range of climate scenarios, while remaining cost effective and socially equitable. They believe that an integrated flood management scheme can incorporate the broader agendas of urban planning, water management, and climate change adaptation. ( English,English,English )
- Subject:
- Disaster Risk Reduction
- Scope and Content:
- 1. Are the impacts of global urban flooding on the rise? p. 1; 1.1 Introduction p. 1; 1.2 How to define the specificity of urban flooding p. 5; 1.3 Is the number of flood events increasing? p. 6; 1.4 Is loss of life increasing? p. 8; 1.5 Numbers affected p. 10; 1.6 Are damages – economic, financial and insured losses – increasing? p. 10; 1.7 Are other losses increasing? p. 13; 1.8 Summary p. 14; 2. Causes of increased impacts p. 16; 2.1 Causes of increased urban flood hazard p. 17; 2.2 Causes of increased exposure to hazard p. 27; 2.3 Causes of increased vulnerability to flooding p. 30; 2.4 Summary p. 34; 3. What can be done for risk reduction? p. 36; 3.1 An overview of appropriate measures p. 37; 3.2 Challenges to and opportunities for implementation of integrated flood risk management p. 45; 3.3 Summary p. 50; 4. Conclusion p. 52; References p. 54; Annex 1. A list of devastating floods over the last decade p. 60; Annex 2. Floods with the highest mortality p. 61
- Citation/Reference:
- Jha, A., Lamond, J., Bloch, R., Bhattacharya, N., Lopez, A., Papachristodoulou, N., Bird, A., Proverbs, D., Davies, J., Barker, R. (2011). Five feet high and rising: cities and flooding in the 21st Century. The World Bank.
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- This publication is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. For full details of the license, please refer to the following: http://creative-commons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
- Resource Identifier:
- FI13010974
778847786 ( oclc )
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