Cities and Flooding Guidebook

Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Flood Risk Management for the 21st Century and A Summary for Policy Makers were researched and written by a team led by Abhas K. Jha (Task Team Leader, The World Bank). Robin Bloch (GHK Consulting) was the Project Manager and Jessica Lamond (University of the West of England) the Technical Editor. 

This 638 pages document provides comprehensive, forward-looking operational guidance on how to manage the risk of floods in a rapidly transforming urban environment and changeable climate. The Guide serves as a primer for decision and policy makers, technical specialists, central, regional and local government officials, and concerned stakeholders in the community sector, civil society and non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.

The Guide starts with A Summary for Policy Makers which outlines and describes the key areas which policy makers need to be knowledgeable about to create policy directions and an integrated strategic approach for urban flood risk management. The Summary concludes with 12 guiding policy principles for integrated flood risk management.

The core of the Guide consists of seven chapters, organized as follows:

• Chapter 1. Understanding Flood Hazard
• Chapter 2. Understanding Flood Impacts
• Chapter 3. Integrated Flood Risk Management: Structural Measures
• Chapter 4. Integrated Flood Risk Management: Non-Structural Measures
• Chapter 5. Evaluating Alternative Flood Risk Management Options: Tools for Decision Makers
• Chapter 6. Implementing Integrated Flood Risk Management
• Chapter 7. Conclusion: Promoting Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management

The Guide is supported by a website: http://www.gfdrr.org/gfdrr/urbanfloods. The website aims to form a platform for practitioners for dialog around the Guide’s themes and content as well as a vehicle for dissemination of the Guide. The website contains additional resources related to the content of the Guide.