Project outcomes and beyond
Specific outcomes
The main outcome of this pilot is a report, 2019 with guidelines: clear steps on what to do to recover after a flood event. These recommendations are directed at those responsible for coordinating or planning a rebuilding process in a residential area hit by coastal flooding.
The recommendations are directed primarily at those who work for an authority or organisation with responsibility for emergency preparedness or coordination in connection with flooding. It will also be useful knowledge however for others, e.g. members of voluntary organisations or resident groups, who wish to contribute towards a good rebuilding process should flooding occur.
The recommendations must contribute towards improving efforts from authorities and organisations that handle the rebuilding processes. The focus is on rebuilding after coastal floods.
The recommendations are thought of as two-fold:
- Both for the pro-active emergency preparedness planning of the rebuilding processes in general, where the recommendations can be used as a starting board for discussions about, as well as decisions for, which initiatives should be included in the emergency preparedness plan;
- And also to handle the rebuilding process in the best possible way for those in the midst of it. In the chaotic situation created by a flood, the recommendations can be used as a check list and to direct attention to those important initiatives that are often forgotten.
In addition, a background report, a brochure and poster (last two in Danish) have been produced, describing the project.
Process results
The bonus effect will be an increase of awareness, not only for the municipalities, but also for other stakeholders such as insurance companies.
In the video below, the lessons learnt and outcomes of this pilot are summarized:
Flood risk management strategies (FRMS)
The table below shows the FRM strategies that were considered before, during and after FRAMES.
| Layers of MLS | Before FRAMES | During FRAMES | After FRAMES |
| Protection/ defense | Roskilde Municipality is working on a dike project in the area. Since the area is subject to NATURA 2000 regulation, it has proved difficult to establish a dike. At the moment it is uncertain, when the dike will be established, but hopefully in the near future. Dikes seems to be the main focus for the local population to ensure preventive measures at the moment. The emergency response uses mobile dike when alerted to a possible flooding event. | Dikes seem to be the main focus for the local communities to ensure preventive measures at the moment.
The emergency response uses mobile dike when alerted to a possible flooding event. |
|
| Pro-action/ prevention
via spatial planning |
The municipality has learned a lot from previous incidents and this will probably be reflected in the municipality's policy and practice. This also applies for the Agency Home owners' Association in Jyllinge Nordmark. Internationally Danish Refugee Council (DRC) works with resilience and flood mitigation in a very systematic way. At the national level in DK, this is currently under development (Baseline monitoring, 2017). |
Not the focus of this pilot |
Not the focus of this pilot |
| Preparation & response | Most of the organizations have small to none interest in preparation. The municipality are the stakeholder most involved in preparation alongside the emergency response. The step-by-step guide will provide a better understanding of the entire process of flood risk management.
The East Zealand's Emergency Agency has learned from previous floods and was well prepared for the storm in January 2019. Also the locals have established a local emergency setup which have proved useful during the storm in 2019 (Baseline monitor, 2019). |
Not the focus of this pilot. However, during this pilot project it is expected that the authorities involved in crisis management increased their flood risk awareness (interview with pilot manager, 2019). | Not the focus of this pilot. But, it is expected that the guidelines that will be developed will improve the communication and the understanding between institutions and the local community regarding flood preparedness and recovery (interview with pilot manager, 2019). |
| Recovery | Recovery is in most instances overlooked and are not included in any policies. It occurs more as an afterthought/ ad hoc. The focus is often on building infrastructure and the notion that dikes will be sufficient protection.
The Danish Red Cross has looked into the psychological aspects of the flooding in Jyllinge Nordmark also the insurance companies have evaluated on the incidents in Roskilde and learned from these. The Danish Storm Council has prepared courses for the insurance companies, so they are well-prepared for a new incident. The Danish Storm Council has also made a small youtube video to explain what to do if you are flooded (Baseline monitor, 2019) |
Hopefully the guidelines which will be created in Frames will gather the knowledge gained by various actors and make the advice available to both authorities and the public (Baseline monitor, 2019).
The Roskilde pilot is developing guidelines on how to better recover from floods based on previous events. The recommendations are directed primarily at those who work for an authority or organisation with responsibility for emergency preparedness or coordination in connection with flooding. It will also be useful knowledge however for others, e.g. members of voluntary organisations or resident groups, who wish to contribute towards a good rebuilding process should flooding occur. The study’s conclusions offer many recommendations for professional planning work. Here, we have highlighted the nine most important. We have not listed those already defined by law. We have instead selected those ones that are characterised by lacking a clear anchoring and which therefore need to be brought into focus. • Make plans for the rebuilding • Create clear assignment of roles • Communicate with residents • Be physically present • The good rebuilding process • Practical assistance •Offer building advice • Offer psycho-social support • Create a network • Evaluate and implement new teaching |
This guidelines will be targeted mainly to citizens and municipalities. This guidelines can be used in other areas that could suffer from flood events to help communities recover faster that in Roskilde area (interview with pilot manager, 2019).
A step-by-step guide will clearly dictate who does what, to what extent and what citizens can do themselves to prepare or recover faster. Better communication between stakeholders on responsibility in particular (interviews pilot manager, 2017 and 2019). Clear guidelines of the period after an event will be performed to minimize the social-psychological challenges. The pilot area will recover more efficiently after an event and return to their normal every day (interview pilot manager, 2018). However, in order to avoid guidelines to be forgotten, they should be followed by an increase of flood risk awareness widely in Denmark (interview with pilot manager, 2019). |
Lessons learnt
In general, there is a lack of proper emergency preparedness planning for the rebuilding process. Many of the authorities and organisations interviewed had emergency preparedness plans for how to react in the event of a flood. There are plans for who does what and which tasks need handling. Incorporated into these plans is how the team will cooperate with the other professionals involved. However, these plans stop immediately once the incident is over, which in the case of floods would be once the water has receded. This means that the further planning returns to the different sectors, and the general coordination across professional groups stops. There is a serious need for this emergency planning and approach to be extended to the rebuilding phase. That the coordination ends once the incident is over is a familiar problem in disaster management, but this does not make it any less problematic.
Two areas in particular suffer due to this lack of coordination. One deals with optimal communication, both between authorities and residents, but also between authorities and organisations. The other is linked to the psycho-social follow-up.
Awareness needs time and it should be continued because when if it stops, the process need to start again after some time. Nevertheless, DCA believes that due to this pilot project, people are more and more aware about climate change and flooding (river and ocean) as well. Thus, awareness is slightly increasing.
Dissemination and up-scaling of pilot results
In order to avoid guidelines be an empty forgotten document, this should be follow up with awareness rising. At the moment, the DCA attends meetings at the municipalities and shares knowledge in a transparent way. The DCA needs more risk awareness plans/ strategies. Thanks to FRAMES, flood risk awareness has increase
d in the area.
For instance, once per year the DCA organizes meetings in seven different places in Denmark and invite
s all municipalities to discuss about different issues such as planning and emergency management. In 2018, the National Emergency Management (NEM) informed municipalities about which are their (NEM) legal obligations towards a flooding situation. It was quite surprising for all the municipalities they actually thought that the NEM will stay much longer in an emergency situation. Another year the topic could be recovery where insurance companies talk about what to expect during the recovery process and the municipalities about their experiences and their responsibilities.
The results of the project have also been incorporated into guidelines for the risk management plans (Floods Directive), where the municipalities are encouraged to also consider the recovery process.
Transnational exchange
Denmark could get inspiration from the existing English guidelines that say what everyone needs to be doing during a flood, and what everybody’s responsibilities are.