FLOOD MANAGEMENT IN NORWAY - RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE NORWEGIAN WATER RESOURCES AND ENERGY DIRECTORATE

Flood management in Norway has been substantially developed after a major flood in 1995. A White Paper representing a national flood action plan and presenting several measures, such as strengthened flood forecasting, a flood inundation map programme and a guideline on land use in flood prone areas was put forward in 1997. NVE is responsible for river safety at national level and for guidance and control of local plans. NVE is not only a supplier of flood information, but also a major user of flood information in flood management. It is important that the ongoing advances in technology take properly into account the user perspective. Through the FLOWS project we have studied risk perception and are developing our dissemination techniques in accordance to this.