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Case Studies

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Case 1: Bergen, Norway

Bergen, the second-largest city in Norway, is on the west coast and receives heavy rainfall of 2,250 mm per year. The Bryggen area, with its rich history, has suffered fires and holds valuable archaeological treasures. However, increased use of impermeable surfaces and groundwater drainage present challenges. To preserve the archaeological sites and manage stormwater sustainably, it is important to restore the natural water balance by allowing local stormwater to infiltrate the ground. The primary goal for the historic Bryggen area is to protect the archaeological remains and prevent subsidence by increasing groundwater recharge. This is achieved by storing and infiltrating stormwater using sustainable drainage systems such as swales and rainwater gardens. These systems, shown in figure 13, offer various benefits including flood reduction, pollutant retention, improved air quality, enhanced ecological values, and reduced urban heat island effects (Boogaard et al., 2017).

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Case 2: Makassar, Indonesia

Makassar city is located in the South Sulawesi province, and experiences floods every year. In 2013, a flood contingency plan was developed for Makassar City. The plan consisted of six stages including stakeholder socialization, data collection, workshops, updating the plan as data continues to change and evolve, public consultation, and finalization of the plan. The goal of the socialization meeting was to build shared commitment and equal understanding between the stakeholders (InaSAFE, n.d.).

To address the water flow issue on Øvregaten street, a plan was implemented to collect the water through an inlet and store it in a settlement storage tank. The water then flows into a rainwater garden and, if needed, overflows into swales.

In addition, permeable pavement, and I/T-drainage (porous pipes for stormwater infiltration and transport) are utilized to further facilitate infiltration in the area (Boogaard et al., 2017).

The development of the plan would be a long process and it was therefore important that the stakeholders were committed to the process. Once the stakeholders were committed, they were invited to contribute in the following steps of developing the plan. Lessons learned from the process show that stakeholder participation was crucial for the process, and that the cooperation between the stakeholders was a success (InaSAFE, n.d.)

Case 3: Australia

In Australia a new approach to community flood education is showing promise in providing effective and long term benefits to flood prone communities in some parts of Australia. The new approach extends the reach of flood education. In addition to raising awareness and preparedness, the aim is to help build flood resilient communities.

The new approach contains several functions of flood education, such as preparedness, mitigating behaviors, adaptive capability and post-flood learnings. The functions address learning related to beginning and preparing for floods, learning and implementing flood mitigating actions, how to change and maintain adaptive systems and build community competencies, and learnings from the flood event that could improve these functions (Dufty, 2008).

The approach, shown in figure 17, provides examples on improving the adaptive capability of a community such as training volunteers to help educate their local communities and community leaders, developing and maintaining ongoing community discussion about floods and how to cope, and reviews of preventative and coping systems by public meetings or focus groups (Dufty, 2008).

The approach also proposes local flood education plans, which are managed by local flood education committees. The committees should be guided by experts such as emergency management agencies. In addition, the community should be involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation phases (Dufty, 2008).

To better prepare for future floods, the approach also includes examples of education activities regarding post-flood learnings. Surveys and focus groups could map the effectiveness of the measures and how they can be improved, learnings from disaster debriefs can improve systems and agency competencies, oral stories will allow people to recount their stories and be better prepared for future floods, and community debrief meetings can identify problems and possible improvements in the preparation, response and recover (Dufty, 2008).

Findings from best practices

Figure 18 shows which measures we have picked from each best practice example which will be implemented in the contingency plan for Brattøra. Socializing the stakeholders could help in creating a sense of community and raise awareness among stakeholders about flood risks. The rainwater gardens in Bergen is a low cost measure that could inspire planning of blue/green structures at our site, and the approach from Australia could be useful as the community at Brattøra grows.

Contingency Plan

Contingency planning can be described:

“As a process, in anticipation of potential crises, of developing strategies, arrangements and procedures to address the humanitarian needs of those adversely affected by crises.” (Choularton, 2007, p. 3).

A contingency plan helps to answer basic questions regarding a potential situation for example, a natural disaster. These questions are:

What could happen?

• What would be needed to alleviate the situation?

• How would action be taken?

• What materials, supplies and staff would be needed?

• What preparation is necessary?

• How much will it cost?

To answer these questions a contingency plan consists of six plan elements. The plan elements are the scenario, the response strategy, the implementation plan, the operational support plan, the preparedness plan and the budget. The experience of the disaster management body is taken into account, as well as the financial constraints of the region (Choularton, 2007).

The contingency plan in figure 20 describes short-term, medium-term and long-term measures to prevent the possible impacts of a flood. The site analysis and our given scenario has laid the basis for the development of our contingency plan. The contingency plan consists of a response strategy, an implementation plan, an operational support plan, a preparedness plan and a simplified budget.

Response strategy

As a first step of constructing a response for a specific scenario planners need to define what they hope to achieve and how they intend to achieve it. This is done through a response strategy. The response strategy is supposed to link the scenario and the subsequent plans (Choularton, 2007).

In this case a thorough response strategy that specifies definite objectives in line with the particular conditions anticipated for Brattøra was built. These objectives, shown in figure 21, directly address the challenges posed by flooding, taking into account the limited financial resources in the area. The gap between the scenario and the plan is being filled with targeted interventions. With the use of site analysis, practical techniques, and examples of best practices specific to Brattøra, these interventions are intended to lessen the effects of flooding. The response strategy is crucial in ensuring that the objectives are clear and pertinent to the situation at hand, giving enough time for the creation of efficient solutions. Figure 22 shows the expected timeline of the response strategy.

Immediate response

The immediate response after the flood will initially involve alerting the authorities, which the existing flood management authority will be responsible for. The rescue services will then provide humanitarian relief and evacuate people safely. Temporary flood barriers will also be placed to prevent further water inflow.

Long-term prevention

Implementing soft measures to prevent the impacts of floods due to heavy rainfall in the future will be the main focus of this contingency plan. Since the flood management authority and municipality has limited financial resources, the measures will mainly involve low cost actions such as spreading awareness about floods, involving stakeholders, proposing to change policies for new buildings, and making evacuation and flood information available to the public in visible places at Brattøra. The remaining financial resources will finance low cost blue-green structures and rainwater gardens which will capture rainwater.

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