The Residual Risks of Extreme Floods: A Challenge for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (RREFlood Project)
Funded by the Belmont Forum, this project innovates by focusing on residual risk and its management, a topic largely ignored in practice globally, and about which there is very little research published. Using an SDGs centered, culturally sensitive, assessment framework, the project analyses how five countries, the US, Taiwan, Germany, France and Vietnam, manage residual risk. We will draw upon the diverse experiences implementing policies to manage this overlooked form of risk and apply new concepts from research on risk quantification, perception, and communication. We will work with stakeholders to integrate improved understanding of residual risk directly into ongoing revisions to hazard/risk mitigation plans, and identify robust strategies with high potential for implementation elsewhere, enhancing societal resilience in the future.
RREFlood will develop the necessary foundation for using SDGs as fully operational performance indicators for the management of flood risks. This project will promote mechanisms to raise capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management, and will identify effective ways to communicate the residual flood risk to residents and stakeholders, with the goal to reduce the adverse effects of natural disasters. To facilitate uptake of information from our project, we will collaborate with local jurisdictions to develop draft ‘model elements’ for incorporation into local plans. We hope flood risk managers, policy-makers at different levels, the international scientific community and the public all will benefit from this research project.