Session Report Cover Sheet
SESSION CODE: FLOD – 10
Name of Convener(s): Disaster Mitigation Institute (DMI), Netherlands Water Partnership
(SPID’O)
DATE:
Session Title:
- March 18-19,2003
Urban Floods Session
Accommodation:
Kyoto International Conference Hall
Contact information
Contact No.:
in Japan
Contact E-mail: dmi@icenet.net, c.zevenbergen@duravermeer.nl
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Session Report
Disaster Mitigation Institute
SESSION CODE: FLOD - 10
Reporter/Rapporteur: Bhatt Mihir
Contact E-mail : dmi@icenet.net
1. Key Issues
Cities with floods are becoming an increasingly regular reality not only in developing countries but also in
the developed countries.
Key issues faced by city planners and disaster managers include: how
citizens must learn to live with floods, not eradicate or ameliorate, but manage and harvest floods; focus
of flood management must shift from large city wide hardware initiatives to the poor in cities; better flood
management in cities is not only technical but also institutional and financial challenge; there is hardly
any data or documentation available from past floods for learning and informing decisions; and climate
change will only call for more adaptive mitigation measures in coming years.
2. Actions
The participants proposed a long-term process—ranging up to two years—of series of actions to
promote global learning. The process is being developed by DMI, NWP, IFNET and others through
ongoing interaction, exchange visits, idea development clinics and consultations in April, August and
November 2003.
The proposed process includes a global mapping of issues and experience of
mitigating disaster risks of floods in cities, a series of community and stakeholder consultations on
setting priorities, matching city plans with community plans, and building new North-South information
and joint analysis links and action-research demonstration projects.
3. Recommendations
Floods and Cities is understudied area by water sector experts as well as urban planners, calling for
more city specific flood data and solution based research. Main issues recommended for further study
and research as well as direct action by local authorities can be clustered into the following categories:
(a) water policies must integrate river basin planning with urban flood risk management planning; (b)
integrated water resource management must include floods and droughts, both in urban and rural areas;
and (c) top down, expert driven and project focused city plans must be matched with bottom up,
consultative, community driven ongoing action planning. In addition to these three areas it is also
recommended to start building links between, to start with, European and Asian cities, water experts,
business, and NGOs to explore and experiment ways of promoting global learning for better flood risk
mitigation measures.
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Netherlands Water Partnership
SESSION CODE: FLOD – 10
Reporter/Rapporteur: Chris Zevenbergen, Joep Verhagen
Contact E-mail : c.zevenbergen@duravermeer.nl
1. Key Issues

Floods cannot be avoided, people have to live with floods.

Current strategies focus on hazard elimination and/or exposure reduction and not on a reduction
of flood impacts.

There is an urgent need to raise awareness and inform key stakeholders and the wider public on
the necessity to integrate water management in spatial and urban planning;

Institutional problems are central in urban floods risk mitigation.

To mitigate urban floods risks a participative and consultative approach is a must.
2. Actions

A follow-up workshop will be organized with all participants in The Netherlands on November 21.
The objectives of this workshop are:

to stimulate cooperation on an international level between water management authorities,
municipalities, private sector and knowledge institutes;

to exchange experiences and to distil common approaches and best practises

to identify gaps in present knowledge and joint (research) projects

to establish north-south partnerships
3. Recommendations

River basin management needs to include urban floods risk management.

Many urban regions in both the developed and developing worlds are facing with the challenge
to establish integrated solutions in which urban development allows for absorption or “moving
with” the flow of excess water. This need for integral solutions calls for exchanges of ideas
between different regions, countries and continents and requires a multidisciplinary
consideration of urban adaptation strategies, measures, and techniques.

To stimulate exchange of experiences and knowledge a world-wide international network should
be established
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