The challenge of unprecedented floods and droughts in risk managementThe challenge of unprecedented floods and droughts in risk management Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2024-03-082022enRisk management has reduced vulnerability to floods and droughts globally1,2, yet their impacts are still increasing3. An improved understanding of the causes of changing impacts is therefore needed, but has been hampered by a lack of empirical data4,5. On the basis of a global dataset of 45 pairs of events that occurred within the same area, we show that risk management generally reduces the impacts of floods and droughts but faces difficulties in reducing the impacts of unprecedented events of a magnitude not previously experienced. If the second event was much more hazardous than the first, its impact was almost always higher. This is because management was not designed to deal with such extreme events: for example, they exceeded the design levels of levees and reservoirs. In two success stories, the impact of the second, more hazardous, event was lower, as a result of improved risk management governance and high investment in integrated management. The observed difficulty of managing unprecedented events is alarming, given that more extreme hydrological events are projected owing to climate change.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Nature608792180–86Kreibich_et_al_Nature_608(7921)_2022.pdfChania [Greece]Library of TUC2024-03-08application/pdf7.4 MBfree Kreibich Heidi Van Loon Anne F. Schröter Kai Ward Philip J. Mazzoleni Maurizio Sairam Nivedita Abeshu Guta Wakbulcho Agafonova Svetlana AghaKouchak Amir Aksoy Hafzullah Alvarez-Garreton Camila Aznar Blanca Balkhi Laila Barendrecht Marlies H. Biancamaria Sylvain Bos-Burgering Liduin Bradley Chris Budiyono Yus Buytaert Wouter Capewell Lucinda Carlson Hayley Cavus Yonca Couasnon Anaïs Coxon Gemma Daliakopoulos Ioannis Δαλιακοπουλος Ιωαννης de Ruiter Marleen C. Delus Claire Erfurt Mathilde Esposito Giuseppe François Didier Frappart Frédéric Freer Jim Frolova Natalia Gain Animesh K. Grillakis Emmanouil Γρυλλακης Εμμανουηλ Grima Jordi Oriol Guzmán Diego A. Huning Laurie S. Ionita Monica Kharlamov Maxim Khoi Dao Nguyen Kieboom Natalie Kireeva Maria Koutroulis Aristeidis Κουτρουλης Αριστειδης Lavado-Casimiro Waldo Li Hong-Yi LLasat María Carmen Macdonald David Mård Johanna Mathew-Richards Hannah McKenzie Andrew Mejia Alfonso Mendiondo Eduardo Mario Mens Marjolein Mobini Shifteh Mohor Guilherme Samprogna Nagavciuc Viorica Ngo-Duc Thanh Thao Nguyen Huynh Thi Nhi Pham Thi Thao Petrucci Olga Nguyen Hong Quan Quintana-Seguí Pere Razavi Saman Ridolfi Elena Riegel Jannik Sadik Md Shibly Savelli Elisa Sazonov Alexey Sharma Sanjib Sörensen Johanna Arguello Souza Felipe Augusto Stahl Kerstin Steinhausen Max Stoelzle Michael Szalińska Wiwiana Tang Qiuhong Tian Fuqiang Tokarczyk Tamara Tovar Carolina Tran Thi Van Thu Van Huijgevoort Marjolein H. J. van Vliet Michelle T. H. Vorogushyn Sergiy Wagener Thorsten Wang Yueling Wendt Doris E. Wickham Elliot Yang Long Zambrano-Bigiarini Mauricio Blöschl Günter Di Baldassarre Giuliano Springer Nature Hydrology Natural hazards