FLOOD IN CITIES:
NEW INSIGHTS FOR INTEGRATING PLUVIAL FLOODING INTO FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT PLANS (INSPIRING)
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In the last years, Italian cities are increasingly facing challenges associated with urban sustainability and urban water issues. Specifically, the risk associated to extreme rain events in urban areas has dramatically increased.
For this reason, the integration of pluvial flood risk management into Flood Risk Management Plans by regional and local water authorities becomes fundamental.
The INSPIRING project aims to improve the management capacities of public authorities to mitigate heavy rain risks by integrating pluvial flood risk management into management plans, in line with the EU Floods Directive.
Project outcomes will help decision makers in planning and designing storm water control actions to mitigate the impacts of heavy rainfalls causing floods in urban areas, allowing “citizens and cities” to be better prepared for challenges related to global changes.
The project focuses on the identification of joint and shared public strategies and actions to manage the risks caused by these extreme events.
To build an effective cooperation between science and society in the assessment and management of the risk of pluvial flooding in urban areas, the most recent and advanced knowledge in the field of urban hydraulics and hydrology, as well as in the planning and design of sustainable and multifunctional solutions (complementary to traditional solutions), is needed. This is in accordance with the broader definition of Flood Risk Management Plans set by the Flood Directive.
State of the art
Urban Flooding: A Growing Challenge
Flooding is one of the most challenging weather-induced risks in urban areas, due both to the typically high exposures in terms of people, buildings, and infrastructures, and to the uncertainties lying in the modelling of the involved physical processes. Floods are normally a consequence of extreme rainfall events, but they can also happen because of infrastructure failures, such as dam breach or river embankment collapse. Climate change also leads to flood risk increase, due to hydrological alterations, including warming seas, changing patterns of precipitation, and rising sea levels. Hazard and risk assessment is an essential issue in the reduction of adverse effects of extreme events. Specifically, the risk associated to extreme rain events in urban areas has dramatically increased. For this reason, the integration of pluvial flood risk management into Flood Risk Management Plans by regional and local water authorities becomes fundamental. While large scale engineered defences remain important, there is an acceptance that the risk cannot be managed solely through structural approaches. Instead, a deep and distributed understanding of flood risks, where structural measures are implemented by non-structural, and adaptation is considered alongside mitigation, should be adopted transparently by shifting from traditional approaches to an integrated model, with attention to socio-economic aspects such as improving flood preparedness and resilience at various spatial scales.
Main Goals
The INSPIRING project aims to improve the management capacities of public authorities to mitigate heavy rain risks by integrating pluvial flood risk management into management plans in line with the EU Floods Directive.
The focus is on the identification of shared public strategies and actions to better address the consequences of such extreme events.
The main goals of the project are:
Improving pluvial flooding risk mapping (hazard and impacts)
Increasing understanding of the causes, probability, and consequences of surface water flooding
Reviewing the resilience of infrastructure networks against extreme surface water flood scenarios
Identifying where structural and non-structural measures can contribute to managing surface water flood risk
Raising awareness of responsibilities in managing pluvial flood risk
Enhancing public engagement and understanding of surface water flooding
Developing new guidelines for flood authorities on local strategies to mitigate surface water flooding
GALLERY
