RIBAMOD - River basin modelling, management and flood mitigation
The RIBAMOD (River basin modelling, management and flood mitigation) project is a concerted action funded under the Community's specific research programme in the field of Environment and Climate. The proceedings of the first expert meeting organized within the framework of this project have recently been published by the European Commission. The first RIBAMOD expert meeting, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 10-11 October 1996, brought together over 20 specialists working on various aspects of river modelling and flood forecasting. Discussions focused primarily on model structure and decision support, but also covered other related aspects of flood risks. Several important research needs were identified during the meeting. These included: - Risk assessment procedures, methods and terminology, as related to the achievement of a European dimension in approaching flood hazards; - Integrated modelling and decision support in order to achieve a unified but flexible approach to river management; - Environmental change as related to the time horizon of structural and non-structural measures for flood mitigation; - Linking of meteorological and hydrological models because of the present gap between operational hydrology and meteorology; - Scale as the key issue in both scientific and applied hydrology; - Need for standards as a necessary step to provide a comprehensive decision and for management of river systems. These themes are elaborated in the final chapter of the proceedings.