Estimating The Physical Exposure Of Human Population And Agriculture To In Land Flooding At Regional And Global Scales

Download or read book Estimating the Physical Exposure of Human Population and Agriculture to In-land Flooding at Regional and Global Scales written by Rachel Dryden and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Extreme flood events stand amongst the most frequent, widespread, and devastating natural phenomena that threaten economic and social viability. Flood damage is largely dependent on both impact factors - such as water depth and area-of-inundation - and resistance factors, like flood warning and preparedness. In-land flood protection is approached through structural and non-structural measures under the wider objective of effective and efficient river management. Risk identification is vital in the design, planning, and implementation of flood-resistant action for both policymakers and individual stakeholders. This thesis employs a unique approach to global flood-risk by first estimating in-land flood exposure, which comprises only a single pillar of overall risk, followed by a critical analysis of current policy failings and recommendations to combat the growing concerns of future flood-risk amidst climate and environmental change. Estimating the populations, urban extents, and agricultural lands exposed to in-land flooding is a crucial first-step in characterizing overall risk and informing flood mitigation policy.First, this assessment quantifies the populations, urban extents, and agricultural lands exposed to in-land flooding across spatial and temporal scales using high-resolution flood extent data. An estimated 2.4 billion people may be exposed to in-land flooding on a global scale, representing 43 percent of the global urban population and 37 percent of the global rural population. Both globally and for regional case studies in Central and South America (collectively Latin America), Africa, and Asia, urban populations may face a larger relative threat to in-land flooding than their rural counterparts. This study also provides a first-estimation of the proportion of agriculture exposed to in-land flooding, which may be exacerbated by climate change, using crop and pastureland data. An estimated 20 percent of the world's cropland occupies floodplains, and these patterns shift for each of the regional analyses. Based on a derived flood sensitivity metric, countries such as Colombia and coastal cities in Africa could face higher flood-risk in the future. This thesis serves as an important addition to the risk assessment field and offers, in a separate chapter, a unique policy perspective to situate the results within the broader context of disaster risk reduction." --