Flood risk management through a resilience lens

The authors argue policymakers should adopt a resilience lens with respect to flood risk, that utilises more comprehensive analyses, rooted in societal welfare. Climate change and the related increase in flood hazards require additional investments in flood risk management. This opens a window of opportunity to ensure new investments contribute to a fairer and more resilient world.

Adopting a resilience lens means taking societal welfare as our starting point. From there, the interaction with flood hazards and flood risks can be considered. For frequent events resistance may be required to allow societies to continue functioning without facing frequent damage. Damage as a result of rare and extreme events may not be avoidable, but such events must be included in our considerations in order to make sure that those events, although damaging, do not turn into disasters. This requires a deep understanding of what makes people vulnerable to floods and how resilience can be improved.