FORLAND toolbox

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In this task, criteria and guidelines at the municipal level for the implementation of a disaster risk management and decision support system process were defined. The implementation process is summarized as follows:

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Step 1: DEFINING THE OBJECTIVES TO BE ACHIEVED WITH RISK MANAGEMENT

These objectives are supported by global references of Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainability (e.g. Sendai Framework for DRR, Paris Agreement, EU Floods Directive) and national referential as the National Program for the Spatial Planning Policies (PNPOT) and the National Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation (ENAAC). It should represent the major goals to be achieved: reduction of losses, efficient use of resources, and achievement of contingency of activities, concern for risk groups, sustainability (technical, environmental and financial) of measures in the medium and long term.

Sub-steps: Identify the history of occurrences and impacts; Identify current strategies and structural and non-structural measures; identify risk governance needs (assessment and management); and identify funding sources.

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Step 2: PRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE TO SUPPORT RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT

The Risk Assessment in which the risk components of hazard, exposure, vulnerability are considered are considered, and all the stakeholders are identified, considering their roles, competences, interests and values.

Sub-steps: Understanding the territory, the natural dynamics of hydrographic and geomorphological functioning and human occupation. Collection and analysis of data (physical, social, economic, environmental, institutional capacity). Analysis of pilot experiments, tests and lessons-learnt of past management processes. Analysis of local practices (farmers, water uses, management of water related resources, hazard protection).

 

Step 3: SELECTION OF RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND MEASURES

This step should make use of decision support tools as software, auditions, matrices and case studies. It may be necessary to collect more data in order to run the chosen models. This phase consists of an iterative process that includes the initial definition of an extended list of measures/strategies (structural and non-structural measures). Applying the selected decision support tools, the resulting list should be sequentially refined into a list of options within each "family" of measures (shortlist). The impact of each measure is then assessed (which is defined as an “appraisal phase”), refined and ranked in order to achieve a compromise between the various objectives and interests of the participating stakeholders.

 

Step 4: PLANNING AND DESIGN OF STRATEGIES AND MEASURES

This may include conducting exercises and tests to ensure the involvement of relevant stakeholders to the implementation as well as the population (active or passive): planned measure approach -> stakeholder/population feedback -> improvements to measure design.

Sub-steps: Design and planning of strategies/measures, ensuring the necessary agreements, consents and licenses required for implementation.

 

Step 5: IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGIES AND MEASURES

Several non-structural measures have no visibility in the field, which is often noticeable in the long term (e.g. land-use planning, information and sensitizing campaigns). The physical maintenance of structural measures such as dykes, stabilization of slopes, etc. should be planned as part of the implementation of these hard-type measures, in order to avoid the future lack of resources to assure their efficiency.

 

Step 6: MONITORING OF THE STRATEGIES AND MEASURES EFFECTS

Checking to what extent the strategies and measures implemented are contributing to the achievement of the objectives sought in Step 1.

The current and dominant classifications of risk management strategies subdivide measures in structural and non-structural. The classification followed by the European-funded project 2nd ERA-net CRUE Research Funding Initiative “Flood Resilient Communities – Managing the Consequences of Flooding” (http://www.sufri.tugraz.at/) is adopted.

Structural measures involve construction of civil works (permanent) or temporary implementation of defenses (mobile) to protect areas against floods and landslides. Three groups of measures can be considered:

(i) Retention structures - in order to avoid floods with high discharges (e.g. dams and ponds upstream urban areas) and water infiltration.

(ii) Protection structures - protect directly urban areas from water, avoiding it to enter inside the areas to be protected (e.g. dikes and defenses, which force the floodwaters to flow faster through the adjacent exposed area).

(iii) Drainage systems – to manage runoff generated in the urban area and in hazardous slopes their surroundings.

In the case of floods, mobile structural measures are mostly protection measures and include sand bags, door barriers, big-bag system to heighten riverbanks and tubing systems.

In both hazards, non-structural measures only include policies, awareness, knowledge development, public commitment, methods, and operating practices. Six groups of measures can be identified: urban planning and policies, flood and landslides forecasting and early warning, communication, mobilization, coordination and operating practices, insurance, financial and aids mechanisms.

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According to the Flood Risk Index obtained for the Portuguese municipalities (Figure 1), a selection of the structural and non-structural measures to be developed in flood risk management strategies was developed (Table 1). A priority not checked in a given cluster is not meaning that the respective non-selected measure would not be necessary, but only that it is not considered as priority when confronted with the other measures.

According to the Landslide Risk Index obtained for the Portuguese municipalities (Figure 2), a selection of the structural and non-structural measures to be developed in landslide risk management strategies was developed (Table 2).

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REFERENCES

 

Pereira, S.; Santos, P.P.; Zêzere, J.L.; Tavares, A.O.; Garcia, R.A.C.; Oliveira, S.C. (2020) A landslide risk index for municipal land use planning in Portugal. Science of The Total Environment, Volume 735, 15 September 2020, 139463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139463

Santos, P.P.; Pereira, S.; Zêzere, J.L.; Tavares, A.O.; Reis, E.; Garcia, R.A.C.; Oliveira, S.C. (2020). A comprehensive approach to understanding flood risk drivers at the municipal level. Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 260, 15 April 2020, 110127.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110127.

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