Best Practices on Flood Prevention, Protection and Mitigation

agreed to take an initiative on flood prediction, prevention and mitigation. A core group led by the Netherlands and France has prepared a "best practice document" on flood prevention, protection and mitigation to be presented to the Water Directors meeting in Athens in June 2003. The document at hand concerns the " best practice document " , which is an update of the United Nations and Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) Guidelines on Sustainable flood prevention (2000). It is a living document that will need continuous input and improvements as application and experience build up in all countries of the European Union and beyond. We agree, however, that this document will be made publicity available in its current form in order to present it to a wider public. The " best practice document " consists of three parts. In part I the more basic principles and approached are described. Part II concerns how to translate and implement the principles and approaches. The conclusions are drawn in part III. Important issues regarding sustainable flood prevention, protection and mitigation are: • Flood events are a part of nature. They have existed and will continue to exist. As far as feasible, human interference into the processes of nature should be reversed, compensated and, in the future , prevented. • Human uses of floodplains should be adapted to the existing hazards. Appropriate instruments and measures should be developed for all flooding re-• Flood strategy should cover the entire river basin area and promote the coordinated development and management of actions regarding water, land and related resources. • Mitigation and non-structural measures tend to be potentially more efficient and long term more sustainable solutions to water-related problems and should be enhanced, in particular to reduce the vulnerability of human beings and goods exposed to flood risk. • Considering the evolution and trends, the approach to natural hazards requires a change of paradigm. One must shift from defensive action against hazards to management of the risk and living with floods, bearing in mind that flood prevention should not be limited to flood events which occur often. It should also include rare events. • Transnational efforts should be intensified to restore rivers' natural flood zones in order to reactivate the ability of natural wetlands and floodplains to retain water and alleviate flood impacts. • Structural measures (defence structures) will remain important elements and should primarily focus on …