Coping With Flash Floods

This volume is the proceedings of a NATO-sponsored Advanced Study Institute (ASI) entitled "Coping with Flash Floods" held in Ravello, Italy on 8-17 November 1999. Thirty-five participants from nine countries attended the ASI, representing both developed (United States, England, Italy, and Mexico) and developing (Poland, Uganda, Greece, Ukraine, and Slovenia) countries. Participants from a variety of professions and disciplines were involved including a hydraulics engineering professor from Slovenia, four members from the Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management, and a U. S. Geological Survey research hydrologist from Puerto Rico. Although the ASI was officially composed of lecturers and students, these roles were blurred as each person shared information and ideas, and learned from the other participants during the 10 days. One of the highlights of the ASI was the collaborative effort of participants from different countries and disciplines. It was particularly extraordinary that the two engineers from Greece made the most passionate pleas for long term sustainable solutions to flash floods. A further example is that while there were only three participants with social science backgrounds, most of the recommendations focus on the policy and societal priorities, more than the engineering, hydrologic or meteorologic efforts.

Inhalt
I: The ProblemDefinitions, Vulnerabilities.- Dealing With Flash Floods: Contemporary Issues and Future Possibilities.- Impacts of Flash Floods.- Role of Education in Reducing Flash Flood Effects.- Hydrometeorology of Flash Floods.- GIS and Social Vulnerability Analysis.- Flash Flood Mitigation in Uganda, Equatorial East Africa.- A Study of the Knowledge and Behavior of Brzesko Inhabitants After the Flood in 1997.- Features of Flash Floods Within Plain and Mountain Territory of Ukraine.- A Hydro-Social Modeling Approach for Flash Flooding Alleviation.- II: Managing the Problem- Mitigation.- Warning Systems for Flash Floods: Research Needs, Opportunities and Trends.- Local Flood Hazard Reduction Plans in Poland - Problems and Perspectives.- The Integrated Approach to Flash Flood Management.- The Effectiveness of Engineering Geology in Coping with Flash Floods: A Systems Approach.- Assessing the Effects and Effectiveness of Flash Flood Mitigation Strategies.- III: Managing the Problem- Warnings and Technology.- Overall Experience/System Design.- The Killer Tornado Outbreak of 3 May 1999: Applications of OK-First in Rural Communities.- Revelations from 21 Years of Providing Flash Flood Warning Support in Denver, Colorado.- Beyond Flood Detection: Alternative Applications of Real-Time Data.- Monitoring, Detection, and Prediction.- Hydrometeorological Characteristics of Flash Floods.- Resonance of Scales as a Condition for Flash Floods on a Regional Domain.- A Distributed Hydrological Model of Flash-Floods.- Watershed Modeling with HEC-HMS (Hydrologic Engineering Centers - Hydrologic Modeling System) Using Spatially Distributed Rainfall.- Soil Moisture Observations for Flash Flood Research and Prediction.- Decision-making, Dissemination and Warning.- U.S. Flash FloodWarning Dissemination Via Radio and Television.- Ranking Flash Flood Warnings: A Better Way to Relate Threat to the Public?.- IV: Related Hazards.- Landslide Hazards Associated with Flash-Floods, with Examples from the December 1999 Disaster in Venezuela.- Evaluation of Temporal and Spatial Factors that Control the Susceptibility to Rainfall-Triggered Landslides.- Heavy Rainfall Effects in Mexico During Early October 1999.- V: Where Do We Go From Here ?.- The Flash Flood Laboratory at Colorado State University's Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere.- Improved Flash Flood Predictions.- Where We Go From Here: Policy and Research Recommendations.