EGU21-670
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-670
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

A global analysis of the interplay between flood severity ad human dynamics in floodplains

Maurizio Mazzoleni1,2, Johanna Mård1,2, Maria Rusca1,2, Vincent Odongo1,2, Sara Lindersson1,2, and Giuliano Di Baldassarre1,2,3
Maurizio Mazzoleni et al.
  • 1Uppsala University, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
  • 2Centre of Natural Hazards and Disaster Science (CNDS), Sweden
  • 3IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Department of Integrated Water Systems and Governance, Delft, the Netherlands

This study aims at exploring whether changes in the spatial distribution of the human population and the built-up areas within floodplains can be associated with extreme flood events generating severe economic losses and fatalities. We relate economic losses and fatalities caused by floods during 1990‐2000, with changes in human population and built‐up areas in floodplains during 2000‐2015 by exploiting global archives as the Global Human Settlement, GFPLAIN250m, and the EM-DAT datasets. Despite the frequent flood losses in the previous period 1990‐2000, we found that population and built‐up areas in floodplains increased in the period 2000‐2015 for the majority of the analyzed countries. On the other hand, we observed a reduction in floodplains population after more severe flood losses that occurred in the period 1975‐2000. Finally, floodplains population increased after a period of high flood fatalities in low‐income countries, while built‐up areas increased after a period of frequent economic losses in upper‐middle and high‐income countries. This study can be used as a general framework for advancing knowledge of human‐flood interactions and support the development of sustainable policies and measures for flood risk management and disaster risk reduction.

How to cite: Mazzoleni, M., Mård, J., Rusca, M., Odongo, V., Lindersson, S., and Di Baldassarre, G.: A global analysis of the interplay between flood severity ad human dynamics in floodplains, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-670, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-670, 2021.

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