Before the Levees Break: Lessons Learned Abroad in Flood Risk Perception, Management, and Risk Communication

Despite a national policy aimed at reducing risk, flood damages and loss of life in the United States are ever-increasing. In California, we encounter the precarious situation where residents living in sub-sea-level developments behind certified levees are "removed" from the official regulatory floodplain and subsequently unaware of and unprepared for the residual risks of living there. What can we learn for managing risk from countries where people have been settling on floodplains for hundreds or thousands of years?

Speaker: Jessica Ludy, M.E.P., Scott Fellow, American Rivers, http://www.americanrivers.org/

Room 315A