UNEMBANKED AREAS A risk assessment approach | Michiel Wolthuis Master Thesis Unembanked areas A risk assessment Approach Michiel Wolthuis June 2011
[email protected] Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Department Water Management, Section Water Resources Management Graduation committee: Prof. Dr. Ir. Van de Giesen Delft University of Technology Dr. Ir. Hoes Delft University of Technology & Nelen en Schuurmans Prof. Dr. Ing. Schaap Delft University of Technology Ir. De Boer DHV PREFACE Risk has a direct impact upon our life. It is not just only an interesting academic subject, people die, suffer or can experience serious losses because they have misjudged or ignored risks. It is also a very multidisciplinary science dealing with statistics, engineering, social, economic and legal sciences. This interdisciplinary character made me choosing this subject. Balancing benefits and costs of investments for flood management measures is pre-eminently for unembanked areas an interesting subject as the costs of measures have to be paid by the initiators of the project. The policy, compensation instruments, responsibilities and liability of damage are not so straight-forward for unembanked areas as expected which gave this research an extra dimension. This thesis is the result of my graduation research for the Master Watermanagement at the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences of Delft University of Technology. The research has been done at the unit land and water of DHV; a consultancy and engineering firm. I would like to express my appreciation and thankfulness to my graduation committee Prof. dr. ir. Nick van de Giesen, Prof. dr. ing. Sybe Schaap, Dr.