Author(s): Marian Muste

Linked Author(s): Marian Muste

Keywords: No Keywords

Abstract: The set of papers assembled in the Special Issue critically reviews recent lessons learned in flood mitigation in various regions of the world and highlights new research directions for the future. The Guest Editor of the SI asked the contributing authors present their past research experiences and their novel developments in flood mitigation, using an accessible style (i.e. not heavy on the technical aspects), as the intent of the papers is to inform communities beyond the H&H that might be not familiar with our technical jargon. Moreover, most of the papers’ content is presented in the form of syntheses and general considerations rather than the scientific/research-based reasoning papers typically published in JRBM. Finally, although the papers are grouped around floods as a central subject, their coverage is quite broad, spanning governance, policies, hybrid H&H studies, and strategies to solve the flood problems while also considering community input and involvement. We believe the papers of this SI bring valuable insights to support the implementation of Integrated Flood Management, a topic of high relevance for the JRBM. Many of these contributions are grounded in research previously published in JRBM. We hope that this new compilation of knowledge and research trends in Flood Risk Management (FRM) is both timely (from the societal perspective) and substantial (from the technical perspectives) and will serve as a good resource to help tackle the socio-economic hydrological threat at a time when its flood frequency and intensity are increasing globally. Finally, we expect that this SI will signal the presence of the newly formed FRMTC in the global arena of flood-mitigation action. The JRBM SI on Flood Risk Management & Resilience comprises two groups of papers. The first group of seven papers focuses on the lessons learned on various fronts of flood mitigation as applied in seven countries at various levels of development and widely different hydrometeorological and geomorphological conditions. The second group of papers discusses various elements of contemporary Decision Support Systems (DSS) for floods, labelled herein as FLOODSS. While the development of DSS in support of planning for flood mitigation and resilience is by now a mature area in FRM, innovation and the incorporation of new features is a constant preoccupation of the entities involved in the development of DSS platforms. This set of five papers reflects the most recent trends in this area, with emphasis on the cross-domain integration and engagement of communities in the planning and decision-making processes.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15715124.2018.1484557

Year: 2018