Risk reduction measures: adaptation and integration of the concept into risk analysis of flood protection systems

Abstract

Risk analysis methods are now widely used to inform and help flood protection system managers in their decision making. Identification and characterisation of risk reduction measures are among the main purposes of the risk analysis process. The risk reduction measure concept, which has first been defined for industrial applications, is now classically used in dams risk analysis. However, due to the specificities of levee systems, the definition of risk reduction measures still needs to be adapted to suit well to risk analysis of flood protection systems. The paper presents an adaptation of the risk reduction measure definition to flood protection system specificities. It details the different types of risk reduction measures that can be applied to levee systems and explains how they can be characterized to evaluate their performance. Finally, the paper presents a process to identify risk reduction measures and integrate them in the specific failure mode and effects analysis method developed by Irstea these past few years to analyse the failures of levee systems and identify the different hydraulic and structural failure scenarios of flood protection systems.