Enhancing Flood Resilience Through Collaborative Modelling and Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)

The concept of urban resilience has emerged in the context of flood risk management (FRM) from the need to consider the capability of the society to cope with floods. Whilst there has been much discussion about flood resilience, challenges still remain on how to enhance it. Participation of key stakeholders in the decision-making process has the potential to enrich the resilience of communities as they become more informed, learn from each other and trust is built amongst them. Despite the advantages of participation, community members and decision-makers usually do not play an active role in flood resilience studies. Therefore, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches may help to overcome these limitations whilst promoting social learning towards resilience building. This chapter describes a framework for FRM that can improve urban resilience through participation of local stakeholders with the use of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) tools. First, a systematic review of MCDA studies that tackle flood resilience is presented to provide a better understanding of how participatory MCDA is being conducted. Then, we introduce an innovative FRM participatory approach termed collaborative modelling (CM), which integrates MCDA tools in its process-driven decision-making. Furthermore, the CM-MCDA is supported by user customized Web-based tools to support information dissemination, social learning and negotiation amongst stakeholders. The developed framework was applied in the Cranbrook catchment (London, UK) and in the Alster catchment (Hamburg, Germany). The results show that the CM-MCDA provides an innovative and promising approach to enhance resilience through social learning.

[1]  M. Ramachandran,et al.  Application of multi-criteria decision making to sustainable energy planning--A review , 2004 .

[2]  Carlo Giupponi,et al.  A dynamic assessment tool for exploring and communicating vulnerability to floods and climate change , 2013, Environ. Model. Softw..

[3]  Eva-Maria Nordström,et al.  Integrating multiple criteria decision analysis in participatory forest planning: Experience from a case study in northern Sweden , 2010 .

[4]  Jaroslav Mysiak,et al.  Bringing flood resilience into practice: the FREEMAN project , 2011 .

[5]  Thomas Blaschke,et al.  Spatial vulnerability assessment of floods in the coastal regions of Bangladesh , 2015 .

[6]  W. Kenyon,et al.  Evaluating flood risk management options in Scotland: A participant-led multi-criteria approach , 2007 .

[7]  Slobodan P. Simonovic,et al.  Managing Water Resources: Methods and Tools for a Systems Approach , 2008 .

[8]  C. Hwang,et al.  Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making Methods , 1992 .

[9]  François Bousquet,et al.  Modelling with stakeholders , 2010, Environ. Model. Softw..

[10]  Eun-Sung Chung,et al.  Group decision-making approach for flood vulnerability identification using the fuzzy VIKOR method , 2014 .

[11]  Participation in Flood risk Management : An introduction and recommendations for implementation , 2012 .

[12]  A. Jonoski,et al.  Collaborative decision making in sustainable flood risk management: A socio-technical approach and tools for participatory governance , 2016 .

[13]  C. Maksimovic,et al.  Collaborative modelling for active involvement of stakeholders in urban flood risk management , 2012 .

[14]  J. Lamond,et al.  Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management for the 21st Century , 2012 .

[15]  N. Grigg,et al.  Jakarta flooding: systems study of socio-technical forces , 2011 .

[16]  Ching-Lai Hwang,et al.  Multiple Attribute Decision Making: Methods and Applications - A State-of-the-Art Survey , 1981, Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems.

[17]  C. Giupponi,et al.  Participatory assessment of adaptation strategies to flood risk in the Upper Brahmaputra and Danube river basins , 2011 .

[18]  Binyamin Yusoff,et al.  Conflicting Bifuzzy Multi-attribute Group Decision Making Model with Application to Flood Control Project , 2016 .

[19]  Mary P. Tully,et al.  How to use the nominal group and Delphi techniques , 2016, International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.

[20]  Klaus Hubacek,et al.  Learning from Experiences in Adaptive Action Research: a Critical Comparison of two Case Studies Applying Participatory Scenario Development and Modelling Approaches , 2011 .

[21]  Mariele Evers,et al.  Multi-criteria decision-making for flood risk management: a survey of the current state of the art , 2016 .

[22]  A. Jonoski,et al.  Web‐based stakeholder collaboration in flood risk management , 2015 .

[23]  Ching-Lai Hwang,et al.  Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making - Methods and Applications , 1992, Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems.

[24]  Michael Abbott.  Managing the inner world of infrastructure , 2007 .

[25]  Catharina Landström,et al.  Flood apprentices: an exercise in making things public , 2011 .

[26]  Ognjen Bonacci.  Public participation in the design of local strategies for flood mitigation and control , 2002 .