Multiform flood events are among the many climate hazards that must be appropriately defined to avoid misrepresentation of risk

One of the most recent articles published on the topic of flood risks in the contemporary world is released in the August edition of the Environmental Research Letters Journal (vol 17, no.8) under the title Multiform flood risk in a rapidly changing world: what we do not do, what we should and why it matters. Co-authored by well-known scientists in the field of hydrology and disaster science - Fabio Cian, Irene Monasterolo, Giuliano Di Baldassarre, Astrid Caldas, Moriah Royz, Margaret Glasscoe, Nicola Ranger and Maarten van Aalst, and led by Andrew Kruczkiewicz, the article aims at identifying challenges and potential consequences related to the oversimplification of disaster type representation in risk assessment and adaptation program design, focusing on non- or mis-assignment of flood type.

The publication provides the scientific community with new insights in improving multiform flood risk assessment and policy development, such as disaggregation by flood subtype, the resilience of investors' balance sheets, implications for financial stability, correct prioritization of resources etc.

In order to address the trans-disciplinary knowledge gaps identified by the authors, they propose, inter alia, improving modelling and characterization of multiform flood risks and leveraging observation data to characterize this risk.

“The COVID-19 pandemic reminded us that compound events can and will occur, further increasing demand for compound risk assessments, as well as for efforts to tailor them to specific sectors and spatiotemporal contexts.”

The article provides evidence-based trans-sectoral recommendations to enable joint efforts for more effective anticipatory action, risk reduction and resilience building and can be accessed on IOPScience: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac7ed9/meta.