---

Search in courseware title (comma separated words can be used) Advanced search Share courseware

---

Open courseware in water

---

---

Environmental Aspects of Integrated Flood Management

Offered by: WMO - World Meteorological Organisation
Type: Report
Keywords: flood, flood management, environment
'

Description of open courseware

There are various constraints – physical, technical, economic and political – in any flood management decision-making. Societal values, perceptions of risks and the trade-offs between development and environmental preservation differ among various stakeholders, but need to be taken into account. In order to minimize subjectivity in decision-making, an environmentally sensitive framework needs to be established following a threefold approach of avoiding, reducing and mitigating the adverse environmental impacts without compromising on flood management objectives. Such a framework will help to minimize the negative impacts of flood management interventions that limit natural productivity, ecosystem health and their services.


Scientific understanding and analysis

Scientific knowledge of basic concepts concerning the morphology and ecology of rivers and their flood plains is fundamental to understanding the ecosystem processes in a river basin and the impacts of flood management measures on the ecosystems. Environmentally sensitive design, execution and operation of new projects; and mitigation of adverse impacts of existing works through better operation and restoration can be undertaken, only if such scientific concepts are understood. Integrated Flood Management calls for a multidisciplinary approach to flood management, which promotes a dialogue among professionals from various disciplines, coming from different paradigms, to explore shared perceptions and common goals.


Environmental assessment

Environmental assessment is a tool to identify the more intensive examination required for decisions that may have significant adverse environmental impacts. Environmental assessment is applied at various levels of decision-making, ranging from policy and planning to project design and implementation. For effective environmental assessment, it is important to start at the strategic level and facilitate a dialogue between environmental and development authorities as well as informed public representatives. Information exchange and utilization, with readily understandable data, facilitate communication among various stakeholders and experts, play a vital role in ensuring close collaboration between the various stakeholders and help in keeping the decision-making process transparent.


Environmentally sensitive economic analyses

Environmentally sensitive economic analysis plays a key role in trade-offs and conflict situations. Multicriteria analysis (MCA) is useful in ranking options, short-listing a limited number of options for subsequent detailed appraisal, e.g. cost-benefit analysis (CBA). Multi-criteria analysis can be used for stakeholders to explore the nature of the choices, determine the critical factors, discover their own preferences and simplify the process of selecting critical options. Since economic evaluation involves societal values, it is appropriate to carry out environmentally sensitive economic analysis in close consultation and participation with the public affected by the projects.


Stakeholder involvement

Genuine stakeholder involvement is at the core of decision-making processes at various levels in flood management. The main purpose of stakeholder involvement is to ensure implementation of IFM principles where stakeholders participate in identifying, shaping, developing, logically validating and implementing the plans and projects, as well as in assessing, monitoring and evaluating their impacts. Consultation and public involvement is also the key to carrying out environmental assessment and environmentally sensitive economic analysis. Interaction with people and eliciting feedback allows affected communities to influence the decision-making processes by raising issues that should be considered at the various stages.

More information (external link to the study material)

Sources of text, links and images: APFM website

Your feedback View comments

---