NATURAL AND NATURE-BASED FLOOD MANAGEMENT: A GREEN GUIDE

Since their earliest settlements, humans have experimented with and adopted ways to manage flood risk. Some approaches are designed to prevent, some to manage, and others to handle the impact of floods. Anyone exploring flood risk management options should understand how different methods are intended to work – and under which circumstances. The financial, social and environmental costs and benefits of various flood management interventions also should be examined.

When communities live, work and play in areas prone to flooding, they expose themselves to flood-related damage.¹ Human activity (such as landfill, damming and urbanization) can introduce new risks to areas previously not subjected to flooding. In both cases, flood risk can be managed by altering either the natural or physical features (such as landscape, hydraulics, vegetation) or human activities (such as land use plans and settlement locations).

The Natural and Nature-Based Flood Management: A Green Guide (Flood Green Guide) supports the concept that flood risk management measures should be comprehensive, locally specific, integrated and balanced across all concerned sectors.² Therefore, the guide is based to the extent possible and practical on the integrated flood management (IFM) approach as defined by the Associated Programme on Flood Management (APFM):

“IFM integrates land and water resources development in a river basin, within the context
of integrated water resources management, with a view to maximizing the efficient use of
floodplains and to minimizing loss of life and property. Integrated flood management, like
integrated water resources management, should encourage the participation of users, planners
and policymakers at all levels. The approach should be open, transparent, inclusive and
communicative; should require the decentralization of decision-making; and should include
public consultation and the involvement of stakeholders in planning and implementation.”⁴

For the purpose of the Flood Green Guide, we use the definitions adopted by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to describe natural features as those created through the action of physical, biological, geologic.

Source:

https://envirodm.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/WWF_Flood_Green_Guide.pdf