Fluvial flooding: decision making in floodplain management

Abstract

The legislative framework for river and flood management has been developed to take account of the social and environmental needs. The Water Act 1989, The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and The Water Resources Act 1990 (WRA) are UK based. Environmental Directives from the European Community now lay down strict requirements for Environmental Assessment. The second facilitator for the development of acceptable flood management has been the use of computer technology. The deployment of this technology offers two important strands of direct benefit to river and flood management, these are: 1) Numerical modelling of the hydrological and hydraulic processes, and 2) The appreciation of relevant information sets by use of databases and geographical information systems (GIS). -from Author