River floods are a common natural hazard in Europe, causing high mortality and immense economic damage (EM-DAT 2009). Human-induced climate change will alter intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, hence flood risk (IPCC 2012). While large-scale assessments of flood risk dominate...

Flood damage assessments are often based on Stage-Damage Curve (SDC) models that estimate economic damage as a function of flood characteristics, typically flood depths, and land use. SDCs are developed through site-specific analysis but rarely adjusted to economic circumstances in areas to...

In March 2015, a new international blueprint for disaster risk reduction (DRR) has been adopted in Sendai, Japan, at the end of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR, March 14-18, 2015). We review and discuss the agreed commitments and targets, as well as the...

Flood insurance differs widely in scope and form across Europe. Against the backdrop of rising flood losses a debate about the role of EU policy in shaping the future of this compensation tool is led by policy makers and industry. In this paper we investigate if and how current EU policies...

Extreme events are becoming more frequent and intense, inflating the economic damages and social hardship set-off by natural catastrophes. Amidst budgetary cuts, there is a growing concern on societies' ability to design solvent disaster recovery strategies, while addressing equity and...

This paper discusses the role played by decentralized, voluntary multi-stakeholder partnerships between public authorities and agencies and/or public authorities and civil society for disaster risk reduction. We pay attention to Public-Public Partnerships (PuP), a term coined for public...

In this paper we developed and tested an integrated methodology for assessing direct and indirect economic impacts of flooding. The methodology combines a spatial analysis of damage to physical stocks with a general economic equilibrium approach using a regionally-calibrated (to Italy) version...