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In European river basins many flood management and protection measures are planned. However, the realisation of effective but space consuming measures such as retention areas and dike relocation mostly lags far behind time schedules. The development and set-up of an interregional and transnational basin-wide co-operation structure (‘flood management alliance') is substantial to realise catchment oriented flood management. In particular, this co-operation structure must involve spatial planning. The interregional and transnational co-operation structure establishes the framework for the joint accomplishment of instruments for flood risk management which is basin-wide agreed on. One of these instruments comprises financial compensations between downstream and upstream regions which shall improve the acceptance and the realisation of measures which bear disadvantages for the regions where measures are located. Existing and planned basin-wide co-operations in large transnational European river catchments demonstrate reasonable developments towards these goals. However, further efforts have to be made to exploit the chances interregional co-operation offers for improved flood risk management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problems in urban areas due to flooding are minor in Sweden from an international perspective. However, some events during the last decade have caused considerable damage which has drawn national attention to flooding. As a consequence, flooding has been placed on the political agenda, leading to a number of inquiries into flood phenomena from various stakeholders and committee statements from different levels of government. This paper aims to review some major flooding issues for Sweden, ranging from the role of the hydropower and insurance industries in flood mitigation to the urban planning process Urban areas bare the brunt of the major consequences of floods, so planning and risk management in cities and towns greatly influence flood risk. An important part of the flood risk mitigation strategy in Sweden is the creation of comprehensive flood risk maps for many Swedish catchments. The low resolution of these maps, however, limits their use in city planning. Here, the planning process is summarized and critically discussed with regard to flood risk Most of the major rivers in Sweden are heavily regulated for hydropower production. Regulation has had a great influence on flood risk by reducing natural high peak flows in spring and sometimes enhancing the risks during summer and autumn. Thus regulation strategies are reviewed and questioned The low occurrence of natural disasters in Sweden has led to generous insurance coverage for flooding. An increase in the number of floods in Sweden and major events elsewhere in Europe seem likely to change that with the insurance companies putting pressure on the municipalities to improve their planning and risk management. Thus the role of insurance companies for flood risk planning is discussed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Netherlands are protected from storm surges and river floods by the Deltaworks: a reinforcement of the primary flood defence system consisting of coastal dunes, dikes and storm-surge barriers. These were implemented in response to the dramatic flooding disaster in 1953. Over the last 50 years, billions of euros have been invested in this scheme creating a feeling of safety in society. However, in this paper we argue that the current sense of safety may be inappropriate. Scientific evidence is growing, which shows that the hydraulic baseline conditions like storm wave properties and maximum river discharges may be different and more severe than recently thought. Climate change and sea-level rise may aggravate this situation. Moreover, the number of people and the value of properties behind the dikes have increased significantly since the coastal protection schemes were designed. In the present situation the flood risk appears to be disproportionately large compared to other daily risks. We conclude that on the short term the existing coastal and river flood protection should be reinforced to accommodate the more extreme hydraulic conditions and protect these valuables. Alternatively, protection levels of different areas should be reconsidered and perhaps reduced. The latter would in fact mean retreat from particular areas [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe has a long history of devastation caused by floods. Each flood event triggers dynamic spatial and temporal mechanisms, which include the mobilisation of many multi-disciplinary actors, setting up and/or revision of many administrative and operational processes, and entry into force and/or update of legal frameworks. Depending on geographical extent of the flooding coupled with national modus operandi of countries, the above-mentioned mechanisms may take place at local, regional and national levels. However, as floods can also be a transboundary phenomenon, and as events in one country are no longer isolated but are strictly related to progress towards increased social cohesion and competitiveness within the European Union (EU), European initiatives dealing with floods and other major hazards have gained momentum and are considered a strategic objective in the EU. This is evidenced by the establishment of the EU Solidarity Fund1 that was set up in the aftermath of the Central European flooding in August 2002 "providing financial assistance to contribute to a rapid return to normal living conditions in the disaster-stricken regions". The decision-making process prescribed in the Treaty establishing the European Community2 (TEC) would govern the legal basis for any potential flood risk management initiative at EU level and would mainly be based on Article 174, comma 23 of the TEC This paper introduces the reader to the EU decision-making mechanism by briefly describing the actors of the EU inter-institutional decision-making process with view to flood risk management. It also gives an overview of the existing European Commission (CEC)4 efforts in the field and portrays the challenges the EU has to face given the state-of-the-art of flood risk management at EU level. Finally, a glimpse of a strategy to provide added-value through EU policy endeavours to complement national initiatives are proposed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the current practice of coastal flood forecasting and warning in England and Wales. The basis of the coastal flood forecasting and warning and recent advances in relevant numerical modelling technology are reviewed and explained. The paper discusses the benefits and opportunities these new technologies can bring and the practical problems, dilemmas and challenges that the service providers and consultants face at present and in the future [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood forecasting models provide the capability to issue reliable warnings to the population at risk of flooding. The categories of models developed over the years range from simple empirical models to integrated catchment models combining rainfall runoff, flow routing and hydrodynamic components. This paper describes a novel structured method for selecting the most appropriate category of modelling solution to use in a given situation in the form of guidelines commissioned by the Environment Agency for England and Wales. One outcome of this approach is to provide greater consistency and auditability in the design of flood forecasting systems, and to ensure that practitioners are aware of the assumptions, limitations and likely accuracy of each approach. The resulting guideline document considers economic, operational and other factors, as well as technical factors such as catchment characteristics, and makes extensive use of checklists, flowcharts, risk assessment matrices and other techniques for guiding users through the decision making process. The guidelines are currently being used operationally and an overview is presented on experience gained in the first year since publication. A number of areas for future research and development are also highlighted which were identified during preparation of the guidelines [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the authors' work in the area of flood forecasting and distributed modelling is to determine how different model formulations and different rainfall inputs contribute to forecast accuracy and uncertainty. To address these issues within the EU project FLOODRELIEF, a comprehensive distributed catchment model has been formulated and tested for the upper and middle Odra River. Within the FLOODRELIEF project multiple distributed modelling approaches, including the model presented here, are being developed for the Odra basin. The objectives of developing these different modelling approaches are; to evaluate the performance of these different models in representing the catchment processes and river flows, to examine the effect of model structure on the character of flow simulation and prediction uncertainty and to examine the sensitivity of these models to different rainfall input The Odra basin was selected for these analyses as a flood-prone catchment representing highly developed European catchments where comprehensive modelling of the river system, flood plains, polder subsystems, and structures as well as rainfall-runoff and snowmelt processes in the tributary catchments are required. Flood forecasting in the Odra requires both fast and reliable simulations for this complicated river basin and therefore a careful balance between accurate representation of the catchment flood processes, the flood wave movement and inundation extent and the need for rapid forecasts This paper describes the formulation, calibration, validation and real-time implementation of an operational distributed model for flood forecasting for the upper and middle Odra. This application shows that the MIKE 11 distributed model is able to reproduce the large-scale rainfall-runoff processes and the propagation of the flood wave through the main river channel system including the catastrophic flood of July 1997. This model is therefore suitable as a reference for the evaluations of different models and model structures in our investigations of simulation and forecast uncertainty. A model post-audit was carried out which identified cases where simplified representations in the rainfall-runoff models that performed well in the calibration, requires revision for the validation period. This type of post-audit analysis is extremely valuable in evaluating model performance and ensuring continuing improvement in flood forecasting accuracy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Anglian Region of the Environment Agency of England and Wales has replaced a fragmented and in most places technically limited flood forecasting capability with a state of the art system (the Anglian Flow Forecast and Modelling System - AFFMS). This has created a platform from which to tackle issues of accuracy, reliability and timeliness and has expanded access to forecasts to a wide customer base. Perhaps most importantly, it will help flood event managers move from a relatively passive (monitoring) mindset, to a forecasting approach that considers "what will, or what might happen?" However, the demands upon flood forecasting are increasing beyond even this newly acquired capability This paper reviews the technical and organisational improvements achieved in the Anglian Region within the context of the traditional structure of forecast delivery. It then considers future challenges, proposing a development of this structure to a probabilistic or risk-based approach. This approach explicitly incorporates the limitations inherent in predicting flood events due to the natural variability and inherent uncertainty of hydrological systems. It develops the proactive forecasting mindset further to consider "how likely is a particular outcome?" and "what are the likely consequences?" It also provides a framework within which technical developments can be prioritised and expectations managed Although the specific circumstances of Anglian Region are unlikely to recur elsewhere, it seems likely that the need for risk forecasting will emerge elsewhere, at least within service-orientated societies. The paper therefore concludes that, if forecast delivery is to keep pace with rising demands, highest priority should be given to coupling probabilistic forecasting with forecasting the depth and velocity of inundation. This will require advances in forecasting science [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flash flood forecasting model ALHTAÏR ("Alarme Hydrologique Territoriale Automatisée par Indicateur de Risque") has been developed during the last five years by the flood-warning service of the Gard Region (SAC-30), in the South-East of France. A spatial version for the flash flood forecasting model is described in this paper. This flash flood forecasting model is divided in three separate tools, which allow a flood hydrograph simulation for each location, covering all the rivers of the Gard Region, in a real time processing: CALAMAR® simulates the rainfall intensity on each square kilometre of the study area every five minutes. This georeferenced information is obtained by the interpretation of radar images. HYDROKIT® gives the hydrographical characteristics of a studied watershed using a DEM (Digital Elevation Model) for calculating the concentration time. ALHTAÏR software, processes the data obtained by the two previous tools and with a module of time concentration and a module of production (calculation of effective rainfall) calculating in real time the flood hydrograph. The model that calculates the effective rainfall, based on the Horton principle, takes six parameters into account. For the first version of ALHTAÏR, these parameters are the same for the whole SAC-30 supervised territory. The principal results of this version show a good flood crest synchronization but a general overestimation of the peak flow. This result was observed during the flash floods of the Gard Region in September 2002. To improve the ALTHAÏR results, a spatial approach has been tested. The results presented in the paper, show that the spatial approach according to infiltration capacity improves the reconstitution of the flood hydrograph [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

River dynamics play an important role in the formation of deltaic and fluvial deposits. Typical scenarios comprise long periods of low discharge and sedimentation rates, alternating with flooding events that are characterised by very high erosion and deposition rates. A general problem in reconstructing the scenarios that led to the formation of fluvio-deltaic deposits is the lack of liquid and solid discharge data covering long time intervals. The objective of this study is to present a statistical method that allows the simulation of long time series of fluvial discharge from comparatively short historic records. The method captures temporal variability of river discharge by a stochastic two-parameter model. Model parameters are obtained by statistical analysis of discharge data from modern catchments, based on the hypothesis that long-term average discharge is lognormally distributed. The Discharge Model for Basins (DMB) extends this method to ancient fluvial systems by estimation of climate and catchment parameters. The method is illustrated with data sets of the Terek and Volga Rivers (Russian Federation). The Kura River (Azerbaijan) is presented as a test case in which parameters are estimated from a hydrological database of major European rivers. Tests show that the model is capable of producing estimated monthly and yearly discharge sequences comparable to measured time series, which comprise flooding events. DMB simulations of liquid and solid river-mouth discharge can be used as input for stratigraphic simulation models [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty analysis plays an important role in the decision- making process. It can give decision makers better understanding in how different measures will affect the whole river system. Thus it helps decision makers to make a sound choice among measures in a more systematic manner. In case of flood damage reduction projects, uncertainty analysis helps to evaluate the main decision criterion - expected annual damage. The aim of this paper is to investigate the propagation of discharge uncertainty, which is one of the main uncertainty sources in a damage model, into expected annual damage. The discharge uncertainty considered includes model uncertainty (choice of different probability distributions) and sampling errors due to finite gauge record lengths. The calculated uncertainty in the discharge varies between 17 percent for a return period of 5 year and 30 percent for a return period of 1250 year. A first order method is used in this paper to explore the role of discharge uncertainty in the expected annual damage model. The results from the damage model indicate that both model uncertainty and sampling errors are important, with the latter being somewhat more important. The Log-Pearson Type 3 gives a much smaller uncertainty range of the expected annual damage than the other three distribution models used. The uncertainty is aggravated when propagated into the damage results. The uncertainty in the damage reduces a great amount when the sample size increases to n = 80. The results derived from the first order method in fact give two bounds of uncertainty, which is an overestimate in this case [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Flood Risk Management in Europe is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Hydrological and hydraulic design and analysis is dependant on the probabilistic, risk and uncertainty analysis of hydrological events. Hydrological variables are traditionally treated as random and stationary with certain probability distributions. If changes in rainfall and flow patterns are evident, they will have significant impact on existing infrastructure, current practice and future strategies in flood defence and water resources management. Recent floods in England have triggered debate on the impact of climate change on floods. In this study, trend analyses were carried out on seasonal rainfall depth, mean flow and peak flow, and return period of peak flows over three distinctive catchments in South West England. It found that there are general trends of increased volume of rainfall and runoff in winter and slightly changed volume (either in decrease or increase) of those in summer, which is in agreement with the current climatic model's simulation. However, the peak flows (both annual and seasonal) across three catchments appear to move in opposite directions, indicating the change of rainfall patterns or/and anthropogenic activities in the region. This could have significant impact on hydrological design of water engineering structures in the future due to the disparity between the flood volume and peak. The paper also illustrated the change of the return periods of flow in the region and discussed its serious implications in existing and future hydraulic engineering projects [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maps give a more direct and stronger impression of the spatial distribution of the flood risk than other forms of presentation (verbal description, diagrams). Thus, maps are valuable for presenting and assessing the local flood situation, and they provide information for many applications in flood defence and disaster management. In Europe, there are no standardised nomenclature or agreed practices for flood mapping. The paper reviews the concepts of flood risk mapping at the local scale, discusses the challenges and proposes a systematic presentation of flood hazards, vulnerabilities and flood risks, spanning from flood danger maps to damage risk maps [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Flood Risk Management in Europe is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The IMPACT European project addresses the assessment and reduction of risks from extreme flooding caused by natural events as well as by the failure of dams and flood defence structures. The project covers five main research themes, one of these consists in the work package "Flood Propagation", which particularly focuses on floods in urban areas. The present paper presents some results of the IMPACT project in that field In a first stage, experiments are conducted in two different scale models. The first series of experiments consists in an idealised dam-break flow against a single building while the second series represents a heavy flood in a simplified urban district with a series of buildings Parallel to these experiments, numerical strategies are developed for the simulation of floods in urban areas, such as exact representation of each single building, inclusion of the buildings in the topographic data or definition of urban areas as regions with a higher friction coefficient. Those strategies are then tested against the experiments A variety of numerical strategies were developed by some members of the IMPACT research team. Results of those numerical simulations are then compared to the experiments in order to assess the validity of each proposed strategy. From there, conclusions are drawn with the aim of providing some guidance to future modellers to optimise the flow modelling in urban areas [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Flood Risk Management in Europe is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Large parts of the Netherlands lie below sea-level, and the hazard of large-scale floods leading to extensive damage and loss of life is always present. Existing methods to estimate potential numbers of casualties are based on limited empirical data and do not account for evacuation. In this paper a framework for the estimation of loss of life caused by floods is proposed. The method considers different hazard zones in the flooded area and includes the effect of evacuation during the flood. It is applied in two case studies representing a river and a coastal flood in the Central Holland area. The study shows that the possibilities for evacuation during the flood on the number of fatalities depend on the characteristics of the flood, especially celerity of the flood wave, and the location of densely populated areas in relation to the dike break location. Secondly the study shows that contrary to what is generally believed, river floods in the Netherlands may cause a large number of fatalities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Model studies into the consequences of flooding events usually focus on damage to buildings, infrastructure, economic losses and casualties yet ignore the risk of environmental damage. In this project, a model study was made to assess the environmental consequences of the release of pollutants during the flooding of a polder district in the Netherlands following a river dike breach. A conceptual framework was established for the sequence of events or ‘chain reaction' during a flood. A 250 m wide dike breach is formed, the scour of the flood waters and/or high water levels may damage or destroy objects like homes, industrial complexes and farms; damaged objects release hazardous substances such as suspended matter and chemicals that will be dispersed in the flood waters and will affect people and ecosystems in the inundated area. The analyses were made in the 50,000 ha case study area ‘Krimpen', located in the western Netherlands near the cities of Rotterdam, Delft and The Hague. The simulated period of flooding was ten days. The failure of objects where hazardous chemicals are stocked was linked to water height and -velocity. The release and migration of pollutants like volatile aromatics, germs, sum PAH, PCB, LNAPL, DNAPL, heavy metals, nutrients and pesticides was simulated with an innovative, integrated modelling tool. The novelty of the method required the collection of large numbers of data that had not been compiled earlier. More than once data were obtained through expert opinions and best estimates. The assessed impact of the pollutants on the environment was found to be substantial. Small yet numerous sources like cars may release substantial amounts of toxic chemicals to the flood waters and suspended sediments during and after the flood, while large installations like chemical plants only give problems near the dike breach where high flow velocities prevail. The simulated concentrations of toxic substances frequently exceeded legal threshold levels [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper's main concern is to establish a general methodology for economic loss estimation as a result of a large-scale flooding. The issue of economic loss definition is addressed in an attempt to unify the scattered definitions currently circulating in the ‘disaster' literature. Total effect includes the direct loss to households and government, direct business interruption and induced indirect losses on production all over the country. The input-output model is proposed as a basic modelling framework. The discussion involves appropriate definition of direct and indirect costs within this framework. Adaptations to the model are proposed to account for asymmetric shock aspects such as ‘production bottlenecks' and substitution effects. The time dimension of the model is a 2-year period. A bi-regional input-output table is utilised for tracing the inter-regional ties within the country and to estimate the disaster-induced changes of the economic structure The case study of a dike breakage in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands provides an example of modelling vast economic consequences. Two basic models are compared: a reference standard input-output damage evaluation model and adjusted models examining the impact of economic recovery of production ‘bottlenecks' and substitution effects from imports and production transfer to other regions. It is shown that with the same level of initial disruption final loss figure depends on the ability of an economy to adjust. Whereas the presence of ‘bottlenecks' in the after-flood situation drags the final estimate far below the reference figure, the emergence of flexible conditions for the economic response provides more optimistic results [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigation to provide information about the location and extent of potential mechanically weak and permeable zones of flood defences is a necessity for effective flood defence management. Geophysical techniques are well suited to detect such zones and are themselves non-destructive. An initial investigation can quickly locate problem areas, and a secondary investigation can provide detailed information about the type and extent of the problem. In emergency situations the results of such investigations would allow the optimum location and planning of emergency repair and strengthening works. The investigative techniques can also be employed in post-flood activities to ascertain the extent of damage inflicted during floods, or as part of a long-term flood defence monitoring programme. JOANNEUM RESEARCH has undertaken work to investigate the potential of various geophysical techniques for application in dike investigations. The geophysical techniques have been tested at pilot sites on actual dikes, which concerning the physical characteristic of the hydraulic situation can be divided into two categories: dikes that constantly withhold water (water on one side and air on the other) and dikes that only withhold water in extreme flood situations (air on both sides). Several geophysical techniques were tested and optimised: infrared, ground penetrating radar, and electromagnetic for initial overview investigations; and 2D or 3D geoelectric surveys to provide detailed information in a secondary survey. The results of the geophysical measurements demonstrate that geophysical methods can be successfully employed to investigate dikes, delivering important information about the homogeneity or inhomogeneity of dikes. Particularly, inhomogeneous areas such as leakages and have been detected and validated [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood management is increasingly discussed as a risk management process, encapsulating as this does, terms such as ‘resilience', vulnerability', ‘hazard and ‘uncertainty'. The question is, is there a common consensus about what flood risk management means? The discussion of flood risk management is often confused by the use of language, which in turn obscures meaning. It is not always clear whether the concepts of ‘vulnerability' and ‘resilience' are new concepts, new labels applied to existing concepts or whether they are being consistently applied. There is consequently a risk that we are either talking about entirely different things using the same labels, or talking about the same things using different labels Diluting this ambiguity is the aim of the paper. After all, if we are to advance flood risk management in practice then we need a coherent set of concepts. This paper explores the range of concepts currently employed in the flood risk management literature in an attempt to provide a consistent and unambiguous language to improve communication and knowledge dissemination. To do so, requires an examination of a range of important concepts including, ‘resilience', 'resistance', ‘vulnerability' and ‘uncertainty'. In this paper these concepts are defined and discussed by adopting a dynamic systems approach and recognizing that both the climate and flood risk management systems are constantly changing and developing [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storm surges present a major natural hazard in the North Sea region (NSR). In this region, coastal lowlands occupy an area of about 40,000 km2. More than 16 million people live here, and major economic activities take place. Without appropriate flood defence measures these lowlands may become flooded during severe storm surges. In order to achieve a sharing of knowledge and a balanced approach on coastal risk management, the North Sea Coastal Management Group decided in 2002 to initiate a transnational project: "COMRISK - common strategies to reduce the risk of storm floods in coastal lowlands". The project is co-financed by the European Union under its INTERREG IIIB programme for the NSR. In this paper, the project is introduced as an example of international co-operation of public authorities on coastal risk management, and first results of two subprojects are presented [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In consequence of dramatic flood events in Europe at the end of last century, a request for more efficient information and communication systems and procedures at all stages of the flood risk management process was clearly identified. Current trends in the flood warning and forecasting system design are more concerned by the improvement of observation capacity and the efficiency of a forecast, less by the proper dissemination and reception of the information by the different stakeholders of an inundation crisis. Operational Solutions for the management of Inundation Risks in the Information Society (OSIRIS) is an example of a user demand-driven European RTD Project, which exploits concept of citizen-oriented technology development in a crucial area of flood risk management. This was also the raison d'être of the OSIRIS. The project aimed at satisfying the principle of the access to strategic environmental information by citizens. It allowed testing how implemented new technologies incite to proactive attitudes and behaviour in the terms of reduction of vulnerability and in the context of flood risk management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present compartmentalization layout within the river polders in the Dutch Rhine-Meuse delta is the result of abandonment and partially removal of secondary dikes and the construction of modern infrastructure embankments. These structures will guide the flow of water in case the polder would inundate. Through the application of a 2D flood propagation model in the polder "Land van Maas en Waal" this study explores whether restoration or removal of old dike remnants would contribute to a reduction of the risk and damage during an inundation. A systematic set of 28 flood scenarios was simulated and for each scenario an additional damage and risk assessment was carried out. It is concluded that a simple removal or total restoration will not reduce flood damage, but that this must be achieved by a strategic compartment plan. With such a plan old dike remnants and present embankments can be used to keep water away from vulnerable and valuable areas for as long as possible and to guide the floodwater to areas that are considered less vulnerable [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a flood threatens an existing property such as a dwelling or business, the owner must decide what action to take to minimise the dangers, damage, and inconvenience. Extensive material is available related to options for managing the flood vulnerability of individual properties before, during, and after floods. These sources offer comprehensive information on the possibilities which exist but rarely develop tools for determining which option might be the most appropriate in given circumstances This chapter discusses the need for, and provides some simple tools for, understanding decision-making for flood-threatened properties. The focus is on individual properties which might be threatened by floodwater, imminently (existing properties) or in the future (existing or planned properties). The decisions addressed are: • Emphasising dry or wet flood resistance: to seal or not to seal an individual property? • Reducing recovery duration: should property components be removed from the property before the flood, replaced after the flood, or dried and cleaned after the flood? • Implementing resilient reinstatement: resilient reinstatement should be a social, not property-orientated, solution. Then, the implications for the wider community context are elaborated The U.K. is used as the main case study. The discussion helps to consolidate available information in order to produce useful analytical approaches which any property owner could use. The key is to make each property owner their own expert rather than forcing them to rely on experts [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]