INTERNATIONALFLOODINITIATIVEUNESCO • WMO • UNU • ISDRINTERNATIONALFLOODINITIATIVETHE CONTEXT

Flooding is one of the greatest
water-related environmental disasters known to us – its
human, material and ecological costs can be staggering.
Floods affect an estimated 520 million people across theworld yearly, resulting in up to 25,000 deaths in a single
year. Along with other water-related disasters, they cost
the world economy some $50 to $60 billion a year. An
estimated 96 percent of deaths related to natural disasters
in the past decade occurred in developing countries. The
greatest potential ﬂood hazard is in Asia, where, between
1900 and 2006, over 1200 ﬂoods claimed an average of5300 lives per event and caused up to $207 billion ineconomic losses.
The number of people vulnerable to devastating ﬂoods is
expected to rise due to large-scale urbanization, population
growth in ﬂood-prone areas, land use changes, climatechange and rising sea levels. New disaster risk reduction
approaches are needed to build the necessary capacity toaddress these challenges.
On the other hand, ﬂoods are natural phenomena, which
contribute to the biodiversity and sustainability ofecosystems and to many human activities. Both developed
and developing countries have beneﬁted from economic
development in areas prone to ﬂooding. Close to one billion
people – one-sixth of the global population, the majority ofthem among the world's poorest inhabitants – now live on
the ﬂood plains. Developing countries with mainly
agricultural economies depend largely on their fertile ﬂood
plains for food security and livelihood generation. The
deltas of many river systems favor low-tech agricultural
practices and provide livelihoods for millions. The wetlands
in ﬂood plains contribute to biodiversity and also create
employment opportunities.

INTERNATIONALFLOODINITIATIVEWHAT IS INTEGRATEDFLOOD MANAGEMENT?
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A broad range of inter-disciplinary and multi-sectoral inputs are needed
to develop the means to reduce the risks associated with ﬂood
hazards. Despite efforts to produce new approaches, many factorsthat force people to live in ﬂood-prone areas, such as poverty, have notbeen taken into account. Current measures are often only applied insingle sectors. The problem is further exacerbated by the lack of aclear understanding of how the impact of development, the magnitude
of ﬂood hazards, the shortage of resources and political will – factorsthat require enhanced coordination and engagement across disciplines– interact with each other.
We need a new approach that recognizes ﬂood management as a
critical part of the broader context of integrated water resourcesmanagement (IWRM). The approach needs to take into account socialand economic welfare and to ensure that resources are shared in an
equitable manner without compromising ecological sustainability.
Flood management – through investment and redirection of resources –offers signiﬁcant economic beneﬁts and potentially reduces loss of life.

IFI’S GUIDING PRINCIPLES
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The negative impact of ﬂoods can be reduced by better
understanding the risks and modifying how they arise in aholistic manner. Flood risks result from a combination of
ﬂood hazards and societal vulnerability. This approach should
also draw on resources at the community level and beneﬁt
from its traditional knowledge, as well as provide training andincentives to use the beneﬁts from ﬂoods. The initiative willthus help communities and governments develop
culturally-sensitive and sustainable ﬂood management
strategies.

"!%The distribution of costs and beneﬁts of ﬂood management
has both ethical and legal dimensions. Equity issues arise
because of national borders and jurisdictions (transboundary ﬂood management),
upstream and downstream riparian rights, rural and urban interests, and more broadly,
between those bearing the costs and those receiving the beneﬁts. Integrated ﬂood
management must promote policy outcomes that seem fair and legitimate to all
stakeholders. Since these also include future generations, strategies must also promoteinter-generational equity.

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The importance of empowering individuals and communities that are directly affected byﬂoods through participatory decision making is now widely seen as vital to successful
integrated ﬂood management.
Thus the coordinated participation of all stakeholders – through appropriate institutions
and innovative governance frameworks – will be a key mechanism at all levels of
ﬂood-related activities.

! !%!  !!%IFI will develop and enhance knowledge systems in all ﬂood-related activities, such asmonitoring, network design, improving statistical analysis of ﬂoods, real-time forecasting
and ﬂood modeling. The initiative will also focus on assessing community vulnerabilities,
along with their respective causes – poverty, migration to urban centers and mega-cities,
population growth, environmental degradation, and lack of experience and norms. All
scientiﬁc knowledge, including the social sciences, and new technologies, particularly
remote sensing and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), will beharnessed as appropriate.
Although development activities within a basin are carried out under different sectors andadministrative jurisdictions, the initiative will emphasize the integration of all stakeholders
in ﬂood management. IFI will establish links between the scientiﬁc community,
decision-makers at all levels of government, international organizations, NGOs, theprivate sector and all stakeholders, increasing the effectiveness of processes and theacceptance of ﬂood management decisions. Coordination is therefore essential for
designing institutional reform and participatory processes that promote fair and effective
ﬂood management policies.

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The exchange and management of data, information andknowledge will be facilitated through cooperative networks,
such as UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme’s(IHP) National Committees and Water Centers under theauspices of UNESCO, National Meteorologicaland Hydrological Services (NMHSs), WMO'sRegional Training Centres, Advisory Working
Group (AWG), and Commission for Hydrology(CHy), and UN/ISDR and IAHS National
Committees. Other institutions, such as UNU,UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Educations,the International Centre for Water Hazards andRisk Management (ICHARM), the InternationalInstitute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA),
the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) andinitiatives such as Flow Regimes fromInternational Experimental and Network Data(FRIEND), Hydrology for Environment, Life andPolicy (HELP), Predictions in Ungauged Basins(IAHS-PUB), the Associated Programme on
Flood Management (APFM), the International
Flood Network (IFNet), and the World
Hydrological Cycle Observing System(WHYCOS) will cooperate in technical andscientiﬁc capacity building. The development, promotion
and transfer of appropriate technologies in ﬂoodmanagement will also fall under this category.

SELECTION OF MAJOR FLOODS WORLDWIDE (2006)

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Data from Dartmouth Flood Observatory.

STRATEGIC ACTIVITIESThe initiative will focus on research, information
networking, education and training, empowering communities andproviding technical assistance.
  focused on the interdisciplinary
aspects of ﬂood management will promote andsupport sustainable development andmanagement of river basins and serve theneeds of local communities. This will require
close cooperation between sectors andresearch communities as well as synergies withcurrent international programmes.

" 

!!$ which incorporates
both existing networks and subject areas not
yet networked will provide open access to data,knowledge and best practices. These will, interalia, provide clearing house services for ﬂood
management-related technologies – at thehousehold or regional level – as well as accessto ﬂood data and international bibliographic
databases in several languages. Metadata
networks that link the technical, relief andinsurance communities will be developed.

• Mechanisms (including ﬁnancial) to"!%• Methodologies to account for multiplestressors• Estimating social, political, health, andecological impacts• Estimating economic impacts including
beneﬁts of ﬂoods

increase coping capacity and resilience• Indicator development   !

• Multi-hazard analysis• Data for risk assessment• Hydrologic, hydraulic and economic
modeling• Flood hazard mapping• Structural and non-structural measures#!!

"!! will focus on education
at all academic levels – from primary school tograduate seminars. On-the-job training will beavailable not only to the technical community,
but also to a broader audience, which includes
law-makers, politicians and the public at large.
Knowledge institutions within the UN system will
be encouraged to take part in this endeavor.

• People networking• Institutional reform• Developing stakeholder processes!%$
%!

• Effective forecasting and early warning• Effective communication• Preparedness• Response to warning$"! with good
governance and participatory approaches indecision-making will provide the ﬁnal link in achieving the initiative’s objectives. This entails
mobilizing individual and community resources to apply networking strategies to improving
the governance of ﬂood management in both rural and urban communities.
  ! will develop local capacity and provide help where it is needed.
Technical assistance activities will range from local support for empowering communities tohelping national governments establish comprehensive national ﬂood management plans,as part of the overall national integrated water resources management strategy.

Performance indicators will measure progress on these activities at the end of the project
lifespan. Quantitative indicators will measure the reduction in ﬂood casualties and economic
losses along with improvements in ecosystems and ﬂood plain use. Qualitative indicators
could measure coping capacity and stakeholder involvement. Initiative-speciﬁc indicators
will be developed to measure the availability and application of products developed by theprogramme, such as guidelines, workshops, and courses.

MISSION STATEMENT

THE INTERNATIONAL FLOOD INITIATIVE (IFI) PROMOTESAN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO FLOOD MANAGEMENT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE
OF THE BENEFITS OF FLOODS AND USE OF FLOOD PLAINS WHILE REDUCINGTHE SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC RISKS.

A Joint Initiative
UNESCO and WMO, building on past cooperative successes, launched the International Flood
Initiative (IFI) to address existing management gaps through a holistic approach and toprovide a platform for further collaborative efforts. IFI is also working in close collaboration
with the United Nations University (UNU), the International Association of Hydrological Sciences(IAHS) and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR). UN agencies working onother aspects of ﬂood management will also be invited to contribute to the initiative.
IFI will help meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), contribute to the UN International
Decade for Action “Water for Life” (2005-2015) and the UN Decade on Education for
Sustainable Development (2005-2014), as well as address the issues identiﬁed in the Hyogo
Framework of Action (2005-2025). In addition, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation ofthe World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) has highlighted the need to mitigate
the effects of ﬂoods and droughts. The international community has committed to ﬁnding new
approaches to risk management and addressing vulnerability, which include prevention,mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

OBJECTIVES
The overall objective of the initiative is to build thecapacity necessary to understand and better respond to ﬂood hazards,
vulnerabilities and beneﬁts.

The initiative will enable countries to:• Improve data collection and analysis for ﬂood management• Broaden the knowledge-base with respect to the risks and beneﬁts of ﬂoods• Take advantage of the beneﬁts of ﬂoods• Build on and improve institutional frameworks for ﬂood management• Develop area-speciﬁc adaptation strategies• Develop approaches to assess and reduce vulnerability• Improve ﬂood plain management in urban and rural areas• Optimize a mix of structural and non-structural approaches• Improve ﬂood forecasting and early warning for both urban and rural areas• Increase the effectiveness of forecasts and people-centered early warning systems• Improve community responses to ﬂood hazards• Boost the capacity to cope with ﬂoods under climate change• Develop participatory approaches to be used in a variety of contexts and cultural settings• Increase ﬂood awareness and preparedness in rural settings• Incorporate ﬂood management into school and university curricula• Improve in-service training in all aspects of ﬂood management• Develop ﬁnancial mechanisms for transferring risks and sharing losses from ﬂoods

The secretariat is based in theInternational Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM)
in Tsukuba, Japan:

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR WATER HAZARD
AND RISK MANAGEMENT (ICHARM)
Public Works Research Institute (PWRI)
1-6, Minamihara, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305-8516, Japan
Tel: +81-(0) 29 879 6809
Fax: +81-(0) 29 879 6709Email: icharm@pwri.go.jp
URL: http://www.icharm.pwri.go.jp/

INTERNATIONAL
HYDROLOGICAL PROGRAMME (IHP)
UNESCO/Division of Water Sciences
1, rue Miollis, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, France
Tel: (+33) 1 45 68 40 54
Fax: (+33) 1 45 68 58 11
Email: ihp@unesco.org
URL: http://www.unesco.org/water/ihp

In close collaboration with:

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