Fola Ogunyoye* highlights the impact of Europe's floods.

In January 2005 Carlisle and other parts of Cumbria experienced floods after approximately 200 millimetres of rain fell over 48 hours.  Three people died and around 2100 properties were flooded in Carlisle. The emergency response was hampered severely by interruptions in communication systems. All roads into Carlisle were closed, the main flood operational centre was flooded, and electrical power and mobile telecommunications were lost.  The summer floods experienced in the UK this year demonstrated further how flooding can impact infrastructure, such as water supply and sewage disposal.

Such events have wide-ranging social implications, including dispersal and dislocation from normal daily routines and support services. Householders must also face the clean-up task and many have concerns over existing and future insurance. For the majority of victims the most taxing and stressful phase is during the months of drying out and renovation of their property. Some residents of Carlisle were still out of their homes in September, 32 months after the flooding.  The impacts of such disruption were often exacerbated by frustrating dealings with professionals, including insurance personnel, loss adjustors, builders, electricians and decorators. 
 
Clearly, better understanding of the short- and long-term social and health impacts of flooding on communities is required.  And this needs to inform planning decisions, seeking to avoid areas of high flood risk. Flood management and recovery systems that improve community resilience during extreme flood events are also required.

 Until about 1100 AD developments were shaped largely by flood events, with inhabitants choosing flight from inundated areas, as opposed to fighting the floods.  This was followed by a move towards flood defence, albeit relatively unregulated.  Following significant floods in the 1800s and 1900s, lessons learned from these events led to increased formalisation of flood defence works through development of various Acts of Parliament to legalise and support their improved delivery.  The rigidness of the Acts varied across Europe, depending on the extent of perceived risk and local politics.

As more formal systems developed catastrophic events reduced in frequency, but the extreme events still continued to cause unacceptable losses, leading to increased emphases on flood forecasting and warning.  Frequent flooding with significant loss of life continues still in some parts of Eastern Europe, where climatic and geographical conditions are particularly challenging. The Slovak Republic, for example, is very mountainous and as a result has over 2,300 small river basins prone to flash flooding. In the six years between 1996 and 2002, there were over 80 major floods with significant human and economic losses. 
      
Particular challenges are faced by countries which share major rivers. Bilateral agreements now exist between many of them.  In 2004, an action programme for sustainable flood protection commenced in the Danube basin, affecting 18 countries.  This approach is leading to improvements in information exchange, forecasting and warning. 

Flood events in the last two decades, including the Rivers Elbe and Danube in 2002 - where 21 fatalities occurred in Saxony alone - have influenced cultural change.  There is now more focus on co-existing with floods and managing the risks in a sustainable way. Such an approach puts greater emphasis on strategic river basin and catchment management.  This approach is reflected in the Netherland's 'Room for the Rivers' programme and 'Making Space for Water' in England. 

It is becoming clear that attempts to manage flood risk need to be underpinned by detailed understanding of the challenges and how they are likely to change in the future - principally the long- and short-term socio-economic and environmental effects of flooding.  International collaboration and knowledge-sharing will better enable Europe to meet future climatic challenges.

*Fola Ogunyoye is a member of the CIWEM Rivers and Coastal Group Committee and a Coastal and Rivers Director at Royal Haskoning.