Recent Advances in the Assessment of Flood Risk in Urban Areas

The adverse effects of flood disasters in urban areas have been increasing in severity and extent over the past years. The amounts of losses resulting from these events are also increasing exponentially, particularly in highly urbanised urban areas, where the effects of intensive land use and climate change are particularly extreme [1]. All this despite our scientific knowledge, technical competence and computational capacity to develop highly sophisticated and accurate forecasting and simulation models being higher than ever, as is our capacity to map and analyse flood-related data.