Methodology
Landuse control refers to integration of flood aspects in spatial planning and definition of land use concepts for areas prone to flood. Those concepts should include building regulations that are:
- flood risk adapted land use
- building codes and regulations
This means that development in flood prone areas should be regulated and any kind of uncontrolled capital accumulation should be avoided. The natural retention basins should be kept and potential flood prone areas (also behind the dykes) only in special cases are to be considered for urban development. In that case, additional measures, such as adaptation of building environment through retrofitting measures should be applied.
Context
Landuse control
Further to the current restrictions in landuse planning, typically designed for river flooding, additional restrictions should be included for all types of flooding, including those in small urban basins from local rainfall. Further urbanisation has to be outlawed if this contributes to an increase in damage potential and consequently in flood risk. This is unfortunately a conflictladen issue, especially for local politicians, due to the scarcity of building land, as exemplified by the project of Bièvre daylighting in Paris, and in Hull in the UK. Indeed, local NGOs and others may apply pressure to get ‘space for the river’, but often face lack of interest from politicians.
