.

Geoinformatics-8-2009
article in accordance to the eu flood directive gis, flood hazard and flood risk mapping the european parliament and council passed directive 2007/60/ec on the assessment and management of flood events (eu flood directive) in october 2007 because of the severe flood events in the recent past and the possibility of worsening conditions in the future due to climate change. the directive demands that the eu member states prepare flood hazard and flood risk maps up to the end of 2013. these laborious tasks can only be accomplished in time and within a reasonable budget frame by utilizing efficient software tools such as the arcgis toolbox solution presented here. by michael haase, thorsten hens, thomas jung and kaj lippert figure 1. elbe flood of 2002 depicting the zwinger in dresden (courtesy of fotostudio heselbarth, dresden). against this background the european parliament and council passed the directive 2007/60/ec in october 2007 on the assessment and management of flood events (eu flood directive). this directive calls for immediate action from all countries of the european union and contains three main action lines as are depicted in figure 2. the preliminary flood risk assessment has to be completed to december 22, 2011. the directive requires flood hazard and flood risk maps to be completed by december 22, 2013 and, finally, flood risk management plans need to be set up and published by december 22, 2015. according to the directive the preliminary flood risk assessment is to be reviewed and updated first by december 22, 2018, the flood hazard and flood risk maps shall be reviewed and possibly updated first by december 22, 2019 and, finally, the flood risk management plans shall be first reviewed and updated by december 22, 2021. the directive requires that all of these activities shall be carried out every six years from the first revision. it also explicitly calls for the likely impact of climate change on the occurrence of floods to be taken into account in these reviews. introduction the intergovernmental panel on climate change states in its report on climate change and water that globally, the number of great inland flood catastrophes during the last 10 years (1996 2005) is twice as large, per decade, as between 1950 and 1980, while related economic losses have increased by a factor of five . according to this report flood risk in europe is projected to increase throughout the continent. the regions most prone to a rise in flood frequencies are eastern europe, then northern europe, the atlantic coast and central europe, while projections for southern and south-eastern europe show significant increases in drought frequencies. in some regions, both the risks of floods and droughts are projected to increase simultaneously. these projections seem to coincide with the observed rise in major flood events in the recent past, e.g. within the danube, elbe (see figure 1) and odra catchments. according to the european environmental agency over 100 major damaging floods occurred in europe between 1998 and 2002. since 2000, at least 700 fatalities have been recorded, half a million people were displaced and at least ¤ 25 billion in insured economic losses have been caused by floods in europe. in addition to economic and social damage, floods can also have severe environmental consequences. requirements and background according to the eu flood directive, floods are defined as temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water . flood risk is referred to as the combination of the probability of a flood event and of the potential adverse consequences for human health, the environment, cultural heritage and economic activity associated with a flood event . floods may for instance result from storm weather events with heavy rainfall or melting of snow covers due to sudden changes in general weather conditions; but they may also result from e.g. crevasses and failures of other man made structures. flood hazard maps shall cover the geographical areas which could be flooded with a low probability (extreme events), a medium probability with return periods greater or equal than 100 years and, optionally, with a figure 2. action line of the eu flood directive. 20 december 2009
Powered by fluidbook tm