Flood risk attribution to river defences

A flood risk-based approach to flood risk management is a proactive approach where resources and efforts are targeted at the locations and communities where greatest benefit can be achieved. To support the management decision a simplified approach to relate the condition of fluvial defences to its contribution to risk has been developed; the RAFT tool. The tool is focused on providing outputs to operational staff in the field to enable the importance of a fluvial defence in terms of risk to be assessed, without recourse to more complex office-based modelling.
This paper presents the probabilistic concepts underpinning the flood risk attribution process and an over-view of the RAFT tool. This approach is used to support both the management and the public understand-ing of flood defences, for example assessing the impact of different management strategies of flood risk reduction.