Improving the Effectiveness of Flood Preparedness

Floods often reveal alarming gaps in the preparations for such events. Yet much is now known about how governments, communities and individuals can anticipate floods and prepare themselves effectively. Lessons learned, and good practices identified, must be well disseminated and assimilated. Effective flood preparedness typically requires the integration of inputs and actions by technical and lay communities who sometimes find it difficult to communicate. Sound flood preparedness requires a flexible and creative mix of “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches. It also requires effective coordination of complex multi-organization emergency response systems.

Being well-prepared for floods includes these practices:

• Reliable flood detection and forecasting (a pre-requisite for timely activation of preparedness measures)
• Effective means for timely dissemination of flood warnings (dissemination methods are often ill-designed or neglected)
• Recognition that recipient communities are not homogeneous and that a variety of warning methods is required (e.g., elderly and deaf people may need different types of warnings)
• Databases on flood-prone communities and means of predicting which communities require warning (requiring flood zone mapping)
• Widespread awareness of and knowledge about how to respond appropriately to flood warnings (recipients typically have little idea about how best to respond to warnings; awareness-raising and education are required)
• Well-rehearsed plans for operating water and flood control structures which reduce flood risk (dependent on forecast and warning, and a strong awareness of downstream impacts of action and inaction)
• Flood-proofing of buildings (i.e., methods of flood-resistant building design often based on traditional flood-adaptive designs)
• Evacuation plans (to reduce flood exposure)
• Plans for flood impacts including food and shelter shortages, displaced people and health impacts
• Post-flood recovery and reconstruction plans (which do not restore the level of pre-flood exposure, but which reduce exposure)
• Programs to reduce the vulnerability of people and communities to floods (e.g., programs to increase social capital and local capacities)
• A single lead agency responsible for coordinating emergency response organizations, and integrating them into a single “flood combat agency” 
• Political commitment and an organizational culture supportive of these practices (rather than a culture in which rivalry exists), and
• A culture focused on learning so that lessons are drawn from flood experiences to ensure that flood preparedness systems are enhanced.

Effectiveness of flood preparedness plans is often undermined by insufficient flood detection and forecasting capability. Where reliable systems exist, preoccupation with technocractic components (i.e., detection, monitoring and forecasting) generally performed by scientific organizations (such as a meteorological service) sometimes leads to neglect of warning dissemination to the public. There may be little appreciation of the social, community and individual processes at work among recipients to whom it is assumed warnings are conveyed. Sometimes it is maintained that a “flood warning” has been disseminated, when in practice all that has happened is that a “flood forecast” has been passed to government departments. Experience indicates that flood forecasting and warning systems are most robust and effective when they integrate local people and information (from the bottom up) with “official” warning systems. These are much stronger when they are designed to take advantage of in-coming information from local communities, and strong social community networks which can effectively amplify warnings.

Communities that follow anticipatory and learning approaches, and whose members are capable of responding appropriately to warnings, will be effective in their flood preparedness activities. Technical agencies must work closely with local communities, integrating local knowledge into flood strategies. A strong commitment by government to an emergency response approach coordinated by a lead agency is also required.

Dr D J Parker is with the Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, London. He can be contacted at d.parker@mdx.ac.uk