Topic: Emergency Response for Urban Flood Disasters: Improving Preparation and Response

Well-prepared and efficient emergency response is a vital part of the modern flood resilience approach.  Flood disasters pose a great challenge to people and their governments to mitigate the impact on people and infrastructure.  Whilst measures can be taken to reduce flooding and, where appropriate, to defend against floods, it is necessary for government agencies to make adequate plans and investments to minimise casualties and aid recovery.  This aspect of emergency preparation requires attention to a range of issues including:

● Early-warning;

● Mobilisation of emergency responders;

● Detailed and resilient planning;

● Provision of infrastructure;

● Awareness and education programmes;

● Evacuation plans.

These raise several difficult and multi-faceted issues that require ongoing research and knowledge exchange.  The papers in the Special Issue will also set the agenda for future research and operations, including the following questions:

● What are the key challenges in emergency response for urban flood disasters?

● What opportunities are presented by new technologies and algorithms for the future direction of emergency response?

The Special Issue will also have a strong focus on inter-disciplinary approaches covering:

● Engineering/natural science;

● Interaction of water and debris hazards in emergency situations;

● Real-time predictions;

● Risk perception and behavioural science;

● Crowd-sourcing, remote sensing and the Internet of Things (IoT);

● Qualitative and quantitative analysis of resilience;

● Communications technology;

● Machine learning, data mining and digital twins;

● Agent-based approaches.

Whilst most of the papers will present novel and original research, the guest editors will also consider opinion and overview articles.

Flood, disaster, preparedness, response, emergency, evacuation

25 Aug 2024