Journal Article

Dealing with flood damages

Thuillier, Thomas, van Rijswick, Marleen, van Doorn-Hoekveld, Willemijn J., Suykens, Cathy, Priest, Sally J.

2016

Overview

There is a wealth of literature on the design of ex post compensation mechanisms for natural disasters. However, more research needs to be done on the manner in which these mechanisms could steer citizens toward adopting individual-level preventive and protection measures in the face of flood risks. We have provided a comparative legal analysis of the financial compensation mechanisms following floods, be it through insurance, public funds, or a combination of both, with an empirical focus on Belgium, the Netherlands, England, and France. Similarities and differences between the methods in which these compensation mechanisms for flood damages enhance resilience were analyzed. The comparative analysis especially focused on the link between the recovery strategy on the one hand and prevention and mitigation strategies on the other. There is great potential within the recovery strategy for promoting preventive action, for example in terms of discouraging citizens from living in high-risk areas, or encouraging the uptake of mitigation measures, such as adaptive building. However, this large potential has yet to be realized, in part because of insufficient consideration and promotion of these connections within existing legal frameworks. We have made recommendations about how the linkages between strategies can be further improved. These recommendations relate to, among others, the promotion of resilient reinstatement through recovery mechanisms and the removal of legal barriers preventing the establishment of link-inducing measures.

• Publisher: Resilience Alliance
• Subject: adaptive building / Citizens / Comparative analysis / Compensation / Damage prevention / Disaster recovery / Disaster relief / Disaster studies / Empirical analysis / Environmental risk / Financial risk / Flood control / Flood damage / Flood insurance / Flood management / flood mitigation / flood risk governance / flood risk prevention / Floods / High risk / Humanities and Social Sciences / Individual differences / Insurance / Insurance industry / Insurance payouts / Insurance premiums / Insurance providers / Insurance risk / Law / Mitigation / Natural disasters / Prevention / Prevention programs / Promotion / Recovery / Reinstatement / Resilience / Risk factors / Risk groups / Risk management / Settlements & damages / Uptake