The work on the 8th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM8) started at the 7th Conference held in Leeds, UK, on September 15 – 17, 2017. The proposal from IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA, to host the ICFM8 was accepted, and preparations started immediately. Under the leadership of the Local Organizing Committee, the ICFM8 was planned for August 17 – 19, 2020, under the title “ Lowering Risk by Increasing Resilience.”

And then came COVID-19. The pandemic has caused many events worldwide to be cancelled or postponed (from Olympics to professional meetings) due to imposed restrictions on travel and large gatherings. We responded first by postponing the meeting in person for 2021 and then organizing ICFM8 as a virtual conference. Neither solution worked. With very hard feelings, the ICFM Ad Hoc Committee had to cancel the ICFM8.

However, not everything is cancelled: relationships are not cancelled; work is not cancelled; dedication is not cancelled; imagination is not cancelled; conversations are not cancelled; and HOPE is not cancelled. Our plans for ICFM8 have not been like we expected, but we’ve found new ways to stay connected.

We decided to use this special ICFM8 webinar on August 10, 2021 along with the publication of the book of abstracts “instead” of ICFM8. This special webinar draws from ICFM8 efforts and contributions proposed by our audience. The book and the webinar program will provide some insights in the current work on flood management and point us in the direction to follow in the future. Three distinguished panellists from North America, Europe and Asia will provide the current state of flood management efforts around the world. The book of abstracts can be downloaded from here.

We hope that COVID-19 will be under control soon. A huge international effort, vaccination and multiple measures to control the spread of pandemic are working. Let us look ahead and get ready for new challenges. Flooding around the world requires new ideas, new approaches and new investment in further ”lowering the risk by increasing resilience”. The webinar program ends with the great news – an invitation for attending ICFM9 in Japan in 2023. Hope to see you all there.

Programme

Introduction

- Opening of the event

LYU Juan
Director of the Research Center on Flood & Drought Disaster Reduction of Ministry of Water Resources and IWHR, China

- “Instead of ICFM8”

Slobodan P. Simonovic
ICFM Chairperson, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Western University, Canada

- Life-time awards

Subhankar Karmakar
Professor, Environmental Science and Eng. Dept., Associate faculty, Interdisciplinary Programme in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India

A brief response from awardees:
CHENG Xiaotao, Flood Specialist, IWHR, China
Jos van Alphen, Delta Program Commissioner, the Netherlands

- ICFM now

ZHANG Cheng
Director of the Permanent ICFM Secretariat, IWHR, China

Distinguished presentations

Chaired by
Slobodan P. Simonovic
ICFM Chairperson, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Western University, Canada

 

- Flood Risk, Vulnerability, and Resilience in the Americas

Susan L. Cutter
Carolina Distinguished Professor, Director, Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute, Director, IRDR International Centre of Excellence on Vulnerability and Resilience Metrics (ICoE-VaRM), Department of Geography, University of South Carolina, the U.S.

- Managing the 2020 floods of the Yangtze - Engineering and Non-engineering Measures

ZHANG Jianyun
Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, China

- Shifting Time Horizons in Urban Flood Risk Management

Chris Zevenbergen
Professor, Water Engineering Department, IHE Delft, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering of the TU Delft, The Netherlands

Q & A session

Moderated by
Subhankar Karmakar
Professor, Environmental Science and Eng. Dept., Associate faculty, Interdisciplinary Programme in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India

ICFM9 invitation

Toshio KOIKE
Honorary professor, University of Tokyo, Director, International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management, Japan

Closing the event

ZHANG Cheng
Director of the Permanent ICFM Secretariat, IWHR, China

 

 

Presentations can be accessed here:

• Prof. Susan L. Cutter
• Prof. ZHANG Jianyun
• Prof. Chris Zevenbergen

 

Host
International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM)
China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR)

Organizer
Permanent Secretariat of ICFM

Technical support
Medcon Conference Service Platform (MEDCON)

384 participants attended the webinar from all over the world. Thank you for your interest and we hope that you will join our future online events and conferences.