Towards risk-based flood hazard management in the UK

Flood engineering in Britain is evolving from traditional approaches based on design standards to the development of risk-based decision-making, which involves taking account of a range of loads, defence system responses and impacts of flooding. Adopting such a ‘whole systems’ approach enables combinations of structural and non-structural approaches to be assessed and compared so resources can be targeted to best effect. Building on methods and know-how already in widespread use in river and coastal engineering, risk-analysis techniques are now being adopted in all areas—from high-level planning based on outline analysis to detailed designs using high-resolution simulation models. This paper explores some of the new techniques of this emerging approach to flood risk management.