Improving flood risk assessment and management through a systems perspective

Dynamic change, incomplete knowledge and uncertainty in decision-making are among the key challenges of flood risk management.

A systems perspective incorporates the interests of all stakeholders and enables more robust decision-making by taking dynamic change and human behaviour into account. Research from the European Training Network System-Risk shows how advanced approaches and methods for flood risk management allow for a more comprehensive understanding of risk.

Key messages of the policy briefing:

• Considering the diverse drivers of floods creates a more comprehensive understanding of flood risk.
• Understanding and quantifying human behaviour can help to better manage flood risk.
• A new decision support framework allows the quantification of the redistribution of risk across flood-protected areas and enhances decision-making.

The present policy briefing is one of two papers compiled by adelphi and summarises results from 15 doctoral theses within the System Risk project.