Human settlements have grown near watercourses since ancient times. Water supply, irrigation, navigation, wastewater conveyance and city defense are some of the uses that were responsible for this choice. Even floods played an important role, favoring the soil fertilization. Man-made actions, however, especially in urban watersheds, significantly modify the natural water cycle, increasing the magnitude of floods and their potential damages. Consequently, flood damages are one of the most important issues to be dealt with in the present days. Several different studies show that floods are one of the most important natural hazards, with several losses, both in terms of lives and money. Particularly in urban areas, the amplification of floods may cause important economic losses and lead to critical social risks to the cities and their population, when inundation reaches the built environment. This situation is becoming more frequent each day. Recent history shows that urbanization is an inevitable trend and, today, the most part of the world population lives in cities. It is difficult, however, to adequately manage urban flood problems, because flood risk and flood costs are not easy to quantify. Traditionally, flood risk and flood cost assessments face difficulties due to the subjective nature of these evaluations and to the inexistence of standardized methodologies.This book tries to show different techniques and approaches to help in treating flood problems. Chapters 1 and 2 show simplified mathematical modeling of floods and results of multifunctional landscape flood control measures in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The remaining book chapters present remedial works against debris after floods in Venezuela and Measures for Mitigation of Flood areas in Japan. There are also presented studies related with Flood Risk Assessment and Management in Mediterranean Basins. The final chapter shows an interesting study related to the attitudes of residents in the Tokyo Bay area toward flood hazards.

The past half century has seen an evolution in thinking from ‘flood control’ to ‘flood risk management’, recognizing that risk results from both hazard and vulnerability. Rather than rely only on engineering structures to reduce flood magnitude or extent, recent policies emphasize avoiding construction in flood-prone areas (or moving people from floodplains), reducing impacts on exposed populations through early warning systems, and insurance to aid in recovery. Implementing this new approach faces many challenges but also offers opportunities for synergies, as described in this book for a range of large floodplain rivers and smaller urban streams across North America and Europe. This book is unique in presenting the voices of those on the front lines of implementing a new paradigm in flood risk management, each river with a unique set of challenges and opportunities derived from its specific geography as well as differences in governance between the American and European contexts.

Over the last decades the world has witnessed a growing number of floods in urban areas. Climate change and rapid urbanization will exacerbate this trend. Flooding incidents in urbanized catchments and low-lying areas, such as polders, can lead to great public concern and anxiety, and their economical impact is severe. Apart from well-known flood prevention strategies, new approaches to the accommodation of floods are needed to create robust and sustainable solutions that enable us to cope with the ever-increasing urban pressure on flood-prone areas and the uncertainties created by climate change. Urban Flood Management comprises a multidisciplinary survey of recent developments in this field. Subjects like spatial and urban planning, flood insurance, flood resilience, flood proofing techniques, risk perception and preparedness and flood forecasting are treated by authorities from Brazil, India, the USA and Europe. Urban Flood Management will provide anyone active in the fields of water, risk and urban management with the latest information and insights that were obtained with a global and multidisciplinary approach.

A flooding river is very hard to stop. Many residents of the United States have discovered this the hard way. Right now, over five million Americans hold flood insurance policies from the National Flood Insurance Program, which estimates that flooding causes at least six billion dollars in damages every year. Like rivers after a rainstorm, the financial costs are rising along with the toll on residents. And the worst is probably yet to come. Most scientists believe that global climate change will result in increases in flooding. The authors of this book present a straightforward argument: the time to stop a flooding rivers is before is before it floods. Floodplain Management outlines a new paradigm for flood management, one that emphasizes cost-effective, long-term success by integrating physical, chemical, and biological systems with our societal capabilities. It describes our present flood management practices, which are often based on dam or levee projects that do not incorporate the latest understandings about river processes. And it suggests that a better solution is to work with the natural tendencies of the river: retreat from the floodplain by preventing future development (and sometimes even removing existing structures); accommodate the effects of floodwaters with building practices; and protect assets with nonstructural measures if possible, and with large structural projects only if absolutely necessary.

The book contains papers presented at the fourth in a series of biennial International Conferences dealing with the Monitoring, Simulation, Prevention and Remediation of Dense and Debris Flow. The papers deal with erosion and slope instability, sediment transport, debris flow and debris flood data acquisition, debris flow phenomenology and laboratory tests, using the most advanced, state-of-the-art methodologies in monitoring, modelling, mechanics, hazard prediction and risk assessment of debris flow phenomena.

Debris and hyper-concentrated flows are among the most destructive of all water related disasters. They affect both rural and urban areas in a wide range of morphoclimatic environments, and in recent years have attracted more and more attention from the scientific and professional communities and concern from the public due to the death toll they claim. The increased frequency of these natural hazards, coupled with climatic change predictions and urban development, suggests that they are set to worsen in the future. This book contains the edited versions of the papers presented at the third International conference on Monitoring, Simulation, Prevention and Remediation of Dense and Debris Flows. The Conference brought together engineers, scientists and managers from across the globe to discuss the latest scientific advancs in the field of dense and hyper-concentrated flows, as well as to improve models, assess risk, develop hazard maps based on model results and to design prevention and mitigation measures. The papers have been organised into the following sections: Debris Flow Modelling; Debris Flow Triggering; Risk Assessment and Hazard Mitigation; Sediment Transport and Debris Flow Monitoring & Analysis.