Overview

Under the slogan “Challenges of Organising Flood Management”, the 6th Dialogue event of the international community of practice Connective Cities was carried out. Between 9th and 11th February 2015 representatives from municipal, state, and national institutions from Germany, Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, China, the Netherlands, Serbia, Ireland and Pakistan met in Cologne to exchange on their local experiences.

The objectives of the event were to strengthen the knowledge exchange between German cities and cities from emerging and developing countries, as well as from other industrialised countries, in order to identify good practices, to start a mutual learning process and to develop common project ideas.

Keynotes

For the event kick-off, a welcome speech was carried out by Mr. Otto Schaaf, CEO of the Group of Municipal Drainage Operations Cologne, highlighting the company’s experience in coping with flood events. Subsequently, in his keynote presentation Mr. Otto Huter from the Association of German Cities indicated the challenges for flood protection in Germany, and stressed the necessity of close cooperation between all levels of administration and policy making. In addition, Mr. Adrian Schimdt-Breton from the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine presented the international Flood Risk Management Plan for the river Rhine basin as an example of transboundary flood risk management.

To bring a view from abroad, Mr. Chaiporn Siripornpibul from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand presented the case of the flood disaster that took place in 2011 in Thailand and indicated the integrated management of floods, droughts and environmental aspects as an important issue to tackle the problem in his country. Mr. Othon Fialho de Oliveira from the National Water Agency (Brazil) has also shared the Brazilian experience on flood management on the second day of the event, and presented the national approach for hydrometereological monitoring, vulnerability and flood mapping.To bring a view from abroad, Mr. Chaiporn Siripornpibul from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand presented the case of the flood disaster that took place in 2011 in Thailand and indicated the integrated management of floods, droughts and environmental aspects as an important issue to tackle the problem in his country. Mr. Othon Fialho de Oliveira from the National Water Agency (Brazil) has also shared the Brazilian experience on flood management on the second day of the event, and presented the national approach for hydrometereological monitoring, vulnerability and flood mapping.

Results

Organising flood management is a challenging task. Although many of the participants agreed that the information and technology to deal with flood events are currently more accessible than before, important challenges remain to be coped.

As priority for further cooperation efforts three main themes were pointed out:

1)      Local Flood Management Plans: definition of the needs and vulnerabilities, identification of best practices and conceptual approaches, development of a plan template, develop local flood management response plans.

2)      Integrated Master Plan Concepts: definition of the concepts for an integrated urban planning taking into consideration ecological and economical aspects associated with the waste management and flood protection.

3)      Risk Governance: identify the best practices on institutional framework setting, command structures, volunteer training, population awareness and self-responsibility, communication tools, and stakeholder coordination to reduce vulnerability and to improve effectiveness in the response and recovery stages.

Video