Flood risk, flood prevention and flood insurance in The Netherlands

1. Flood risk, flood prevention and flood insurance in The Netherlands Karel Heynert & Laurens Bouwer Deltares, The Netherlands

2. This talk…

4. Ems Rhine Meuse Scheldt The Netherlands - delta of 4 international basins Amsterdam Schiphol 4

5. The Netherlands – protected by levees

7. Flood protection in The Netherlands (current) Return periods… 4,000yr • 53 flood protection areas (dike rings) • Protection level based on probability of exceedance of design waterlevels • 5 different protection standards • Procedure in Water Act • Formal verification: every 6 yrs 1,250yr 10,000yr 4,000yr 2,000yr

8. Towards a flood risk based approach… • Decision making based on flood risk • Still largely an engineering approach, but… • Flood risk… • Unprotected areas: flood hazard * vulnerability (mapping) • Areas with flood defences: failure probability * consequences (calculations) • Rationale for investments in flood defences… • Economic viability • Probability of loss of life < 10-5

9. Computing flood risk… ?

10. Computing flood risk… Potential direct damage per dike ring in M€ (in 2020) Potential inundation depth in (meter) • Some points of attention… • ‘Indirect’ damage • Critical infrastructure • Not all parts of levee system are equally important • Flood protection units interact

11. Potential loss of life… Local individual risk of death P < 10^-7 10^-7 < P < 10^-6 10^-6 < P < 10^-5 P > 10^-5 Flood prone Not flood prone Water Not NL • Preventing loss of life… • Flood protection • Flood warning & crisis management Time to onset of flooding Direct (< 6 hrs) Fast (6-24 hrs) Slow (> 24 hrs) 16 september 2014

12. Flood insurance…

13. Insurability of flood damage in The Netherlands • Local flood damage → ordinary insurance policies • 1: Water damage in house (rain) • 2: High groundwater • 3: Sewer flooding • 4: Polder water system X Figure: Matthijs Kok

14. Insurability of flood damage in The Netherlands • Local flood damage → ordinary insurance policies • 1: Water damage in house (rain) • 2: High groundwater • 3: Sewer flooding • 4: Polder water system X Figure: Matthijs Kok Flooding, due to failure of defences → coverage ?? 5: Failure regional flood defence 6: Failure of primary flood defence 7: Unembanked areas

15. Flood insurance in The Netherlands… • Building and home content policies • Crop loss insurance stopped in ‘09 • Government compensation act (WTS) • New disaster insurance… • Flooding, terrorism, earthquake etc • Limited to 75 k€ per insured object • Limit in nr of households in ‘unit’ • Flood insurance pool proposed by Dutch Association of Insurers… • Obligatory, incl. in house insurance! • Annual max. coverage: 5,000 M€ • Seems rejected by NL cartel authority

16. Future direction of flood insurance? • Flood risk management policy based on: • Prevention • Optimal investments • Prevention of loss of life • High protection levels • Infrequent events • High accumulation risk • Limited flood awareness (?) • Public anticipation of role government • So where should we with flood insurance? • Mainly for regional water systems? < 100 €/ha 100-1,000 €/ha 1000-10,000 €/ha 10,000-100,000 €/ha > 100,000 €/ha

17. How to balance between • investments in flood protection and • relying on flood insurance? • Thank you!