The need for municipal action planning against flood risk: the risk-informed journey of the municipality of Oliva (Spain)

Abstract

Society demands higher safety levels, including those actions related to urban planning and protection against natural hazards and manmade threats. Therefore, authorities respond to these demands through new regulatory and operational frameworks to cope with existing and future risks. The Spanish regulatory framework regarding flood risk management, based on the European context, defines the required procedures for emergency management, involving all authorities responsable for civil protection and urban planning. This framework requires all municipalities at medium or high flood risk to develop and implement local action plans against flood risk (PAMRI, by its acronym in Spanish), which must include a risk estimation, analysis and evaluation, along with the description of actions for a risk-informed urban planning and emergency management. The City Council of Oliva developed the corresponding plan, approved by the regional government in June 2016, including new aspects such as the figure of the Technical Director, and a comprehensive and quantitative flood risk analysis to support decisionmaking on emergency management and planning.

Keywords

• flood risk
• emergency action planning
• civil protection