Riverine Flood Hazard: Part A. Types, processes and causative factors

Floods are one of the most severe natural hazards. Natural and anthropogenic climate change and a changing landscape have the potential to exacerbate flood impacts. An in-depth understanding of flood types, processes and causative factors is essential in planning effective flood management strategies. In-depth understanding of flood events needs analyses of their hydrological as well as geomorphic characteristics. The understanding of palaeofloods, often in conjunction with traditional analyses of flood frequency and magnitude, can also unravel changes related to flood hazard. The new flood management strategies need inclusion of non-structural measures on the basis of an understanding of basin to reach scale processes for sustainable management of flood hazard; however, to be effective it should be based on an understanding of flood dynamics. This study provides a review of the various aspects of flood hazard, with particular focus on the dynamical processes that underpin the flood phenomenon.