Publicação
Flood hazard and risk in urban areas
| Resumo: | Floodplains and valleys have always been preferential locations for human presence. The first great cities in human history, regardless of the continent, are associated with the valleys of large rivers. The advantages of such settlements were evident, as were the hydrological risks, reflected in disasters of varying magnitude, which became a seasonal—more or less expected—part of the lives of riverside populations. Approaching the first quarter of the 21st century, the physical process of flooding, its triggering and conditioning factors, is now sufficiently understood—despite the continuous discovery and new perspectives on knowledge taken for granted decades ago, which continues to exist, supported by global data and models, e.g., [1], but it takes on added complexity in urban areas. This complexity arises not only from the modeling of flood susceptibility and hazards, but also from the presence of diverse elements at risk, each with its own vulnerability characteristics and adaptive capacity [2]. On the hazard side, in addition to the uncertainties in using precipitation data series, due to changing patterns of intensity and frequency, the complexity of modeling the hydrodynamic behavior in such an altered environment must be considered: the underground channeling of runoff, the role of retention basins, the effect of riverbed restoration or renaturalization, and the interaction with compound or cascading hazards (sea-level rise, upstream ice melt, more intense and frequent ocean storms, coastal erosion…). On the societal side of the flood risk equation, the continued growth of cities is still insufficiently addressed by spatial planning regulations, or when accounted for, there is often an over-reliance on gray infrastructure, which gives a false sense of security. This calls attention to concepts such as socio-hydrology, which deals with the behavioral patterns of communities in the face of given probabilistic and perceived flood risk scenarios [3,4]. Land occupation is also unequal, often reserving the most hazardous areas for the most vulnerable populations. Almost all the contributions to this Special Issue referred to historical records of flood events and losses, whether to simply provide context, or in support of more thorough analysis and modeling, which underpins the necessity to invest in the standardized, holistic, and detailed reporting of events [5], with the recognition that one cannot know what it needs to address risk and reduce losses, when what is lost is not entirely known [6]. |
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| Autores principais: | Santos, Pedro |
| Assunto: | Flood Hazard Urban Areas |
| Ano: | 2024 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | Floodplains and valleys have always been preferential locations for human presence. The first great cities in human history, regardless of the continent, are associated with the valleys of large rivers. The advantages of such settlements were evident, as were the hydrological risks, reflected in disasters of varying magnitude, which became a seasonal—more or less expected—part of the lives of riverside populations. Approaching the first quarter of the 21st century, the physical process of flooding, its triggering and conditioning factors, is now sufficiently understood—despite the continuous discovery and new perspectives on knowledge taken for granted decades ago, which continues to exist, supported by global data and models, e.g., [1], but it takes on added complexity in urban areas. This complexity arises not only from the modeling of flood susceptibility and hazards, but also from the presence of diverse elements at risk, each with its own vulnerability characteristics and adaptive capacity [2]. On the hazard side, in addition to the uncertainties in using precipitation data series, due to changing patterns of intensity and frequency, the complexity of modeling the hydrodynamic behavior in such an altered environment must be considered: the underground channeling of runoff, the role of retention basins, the effect of riverbed restoration or renaturalization, and the interaction with compound or cascading hazards (sea-level rise, upstream ice melt, more intense and frequent ocean storms, coastal erosion…). On the societal side of the flood risk equation, the continued growth of cities is still insufficiently addressed by spatial planning regulations, or when accounted for, there is often an over-reliance on gray infrastructure, which gives a false sense of security. This calls attention to concepts such as socio-hydrology, which deals with the behavioral patterns of communities in the face of given probabilistic and perceived flood risk scenarios [3,4]. Land occupation is also unequal, often reserving the most hazardous areas for the most vulnerable populations. Almost all the contributions to this Special Issue referred to historical records of flood events and losses, whether to simply provide context, or in support of more thorough analysis and modeling, which underpins the necessity to invest in the standardized, holistic, and detailed reporting of events [5], with the recognition that one cannot know what it needs to address risk and reduce losses, when what is lost is not entirely known [6]. |
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