Emergency Management for Flood Defences – General Concepts
- Start:
- End:
- Course fee: € 1000 excl. VAT
- Application deadline:
This short course promotes practical use of the Handbook on Emergency Management for Flood Defences while creating learning and networking opportunities for professionals from government, industry and academia. The course serves as the first component of a two-part series, while also offering value as a stand-alone short course.
For whom?
Professionals and academics active in flood risk and emergency management (coastal, river and estuarine managers and engineers, flood defence owners, civil/hydraulic/geotechnical engineers, crisis managers, crisis communicators, flood forecasters, patrollers / inspectors, responders, crisis planners, rescue & relief).
Prerequisites
none
Learning objectives
- Design an emergency plan
- Demonstrate the ability to implement and coordinate emergency measures and crisis response to floods
- Identify and prioritize the use of permanent and temporary structural flood defences
- Understanding flood hazard, vulnerability and risk related to different threats such as river, coastal, pluvial and lake floods
In December 2024, the International Handbook on Emergency Management for Flood Defences was launched by key partners including Rijkswaterstaat (The Netherlands), the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USA), the Environment Agency (England), and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Tourism (Japan), with contributions from 16 additional organisations.
As no comprehensive training course currently exists on this topic, this short course aims to fill this gap by promoting practical use of the Handbook while creating learning and networking opportunities for professionals from government, industry and academia.
IHE Delft will host the course, offering a comprehensive programme of lectures, work sessions, field visits and networking opportunities along the topics and with authors from the Handbook.
Programme
PART 1 – General concepts
Goal: Build a shared understanding of risk, preparedness, response and defence systems.
- Day 1 – Understanding Flood Risk, Preparedness and Response
- Day 2 – Flooding Threats
- Day 3 – Flood Defences
- Day 4 – Field visits
- Day 5 – Sharing knowledge, funding, making it work (+certificate ceremony)
Topics
- Overview of emergency management of flood defences
Framework, organisational aspects, policies, planning, communication, international organisations - Preparedness
Components of readiness and preparedness, understanding risk, community engagement, awareness - Response
Components of event & crisis management, escalation procedures, decision making, multiple disasters - Flooding threats
River flooding, flooding from sea, pluvial flooding, lake floods, flash floods; implications for vulnerability - Flood defences
Levees / dykes, dams, barriers, structures with flood defence function, demountable and temporary defences - Communicating for emergency management
Risk communication, crisis communication, focus is on communication between professionals - Sharing knowledge and collaborating
Exercises, Training, Education, EU Civil Protection Mechanism, community involvement - Justifying the required funding
Streamlining funding, how organised, how to justify/prioritise - Making it work
Future, innovation, updating the handbook
Lecturers
Lecturers include authors from the Handbook or other representatives from the relevant contributing organizations and lectures from IHE Delft. Additional lecturers could be invited, for example from the Interreg programme BONSAI, where Rijkswaterstaat is one of the key partners. It is intended to have each day/topic be jointly set up by IHE Delft/external.
Application process
Please note that if you follow both this course as well as part 2 of the series, you will pay a reduced tuition fee of €1500 for both courses.
If you are interested in attending this short course, please send an e-mail to: shortcourseregistration@un-ihe.org
Course Coordinator
Fredrik Huthoff
Associate Professor of Hydraulic Engineering
