The Journal of Flood Risk Management Outstanding Paper Award

“We’re delighted to enable wider access to the award-wining paper and continue our support for CIWEM and the Journal of Flood Risk Management.  We recognise the contribution to the Journal made by all its authors, editors and reviewers, and hope that our support helps in sharing the benefits of their work.”

Rob Lamb

The 2015 Awards

The winning paper in 2015 was chosen from a total of thirty one articles published in Volume 7.  The paper by C. Wobus, M. Lawson, R. Jones, J. Smith and J. Martinich entitled “Estimating monetary damages from flooding in the United States under a changing climate” published in issue 3, tackles an issue that is of prime importance to developing flood risk management policy. Under the current concerns of heightening flood risk and flood damages, the paper is an important contribution to assessment methodology and practice at the broadest scale in the US.

The authors examine the relationship between observed rainfall and flood damages totalled in 18 Water Resource Regions covering the whole of the US and then assess changes in rainfall and damage based on spatial and seasonal changes inferred from climate modelling.

Dr Paul Samuels, Editor in Chief of the Journal said:

“The winning paper demonstrated many good qualities, but most importantly it addresses an important issue in flood risk management.  It can be used as an example for other authors; it is clearly written and well structured, developing and implementing a novel approach and the conclusions of the paper provide an appropriate summary of the key implications of the national scale analysis.”

Highly commended papers for the 2015 award are as follows:

  • Morris, P. Brewin (2014),The impact of seasonal flooding on agriculture: the spring 2012 floods in Somerset, England, JFRM Vol 7 no 2
  • Alexander, C. Viavattene, H. Faulkner, S. Priest (2014),Translating the complexities of flood risk science using KEEPER – a knowledge exchange exploratory tool for professionals in emergency response, JFRM Vol 7 no 3
  • A.U.R. Tariq, O.A.C. Hoes, N.C. Van de Giesen (2014),Development of a risk-based framework to integrate flood insurance, JFRM Vol 7 no 4

The 2014 Awards

The winning paper by J.M. Wicks, C. Hu, M. Scott, L. Chen and X. Cheng, entitled “A broad scale model for flood simulation in the Taihu Basin, China” was published in issue 1 of Volume 6 as part of a Special Issue devoted to an international bilateral scientific cooperation project in which a range of disciplines are involved.

The paper addresses a complex practical problem of real concern: the evolution of future flood risk in an area of about 37,000km2 in China, which generates about 13% of the national GDP and where flooding is caused by multiple sources.

Spatial and temporal considerations required a flood simulation approach, which enabled credible assessment of future climatic, economic and social conditions, within the constraints of available resources and data. This challenge, of assessing policy and management responses to flood risk at national and regional scale, is one that affects many countries.

Highly commended papers for the 2014 awards are as follows:

  • Leandro, J.P. Leitão and J.L.M.P. de Lima (2013), Quantifying the uncertainty in the Soil Conservation Service flood hydrographs: a case study in the Azores Islands, JFRM Vol 6 no 3
  • Stansby, N. Chini, D. Apsley, A. Borthwick, L. Bricheno, J. Horrillo-Caraballo, M. McCabe, D. Reeve, B.D. Rogers, A. Saulter, A. Scott, C. Wilson, J. Wolf and K. Yan (2013), An integrated model system for coastal flood prediction with a case history for Walcott, UK, on 9 November 2007, JFRM Vol 6 no 3
  • J. Warmink, M.W. Straatsma, F. Huthoff, M.J. Booij and S.J.M.H. Hulscher (2103), Uncertainty of design water levels due to combined bed form and vegetation roughness in the Dutch River Waal, JFRM Vol 6 no 4
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