NHESS Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences NHESS Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. 1684-9981 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/nhess-12-1701-2012 Recommendations for the user-specific enhancement of flood maps Meyer V. 1 Kuhlicke C. 1 Luther J. 1 Fuchs S. 2 Priest S. 3 Dorner W. 4 Serrhini K. 5 Pardoe J. 3 McCarthy S. 3 Seidel J. 4 Palka G. 5 Unnerstall H. 6 Viavattene C. 3 Scheuer S. 7 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany Institute of Mountain Risk Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, London, UK University of Applied Sciences Deggendorf, Germany Université François-Rabelais, École Polytechnique, Département Génie de l'Aménagement, Tours, France Protestant Academy Hofgeismar (Evangelische Akademie Hofgeismar), Germany Humboldt University Berlin, Institute of Geography, Germany 24 05 2012 12 5 1701 1716 Copyright: © 2012 V. Meyer et al. 2012 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/12/1701/2012/nhess-12-1701-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/12/1701/2012/nhess-12-1701-2012.pdf

The European Union Floods Directive requires the establishment of flood maps for high risk areas in all European member states by 2013. However, the current practice of flood mapping in Europe still shows some deficits. Firstly, flood maps are frequently seen as an information tool rather than a communication tool. This means that, for example, local stocks of knowledge are not incorporated. Secondly, the contents of flood maps often do not match the requirements of the end-users. Finally, flood maps are often designed and visualised in a way that cannot be easily understood by residents at risk and/or that is not suitable for the respective needs of public authorities in risk and event management. The RISK MAP project examined how end-user participation in the mapping process may be used to overcome these barriers and enhance the communicative power of flood maps, fundamentally increasing their effectiveness. <br><br> Based on empirical findings from a participatory approach that incorporated interviews, workshops and eye-tracking tests, conducted in five European case studies, this paper outlines recommendations for user-specific enhancements of flood maps. More specific, recommendations are given with regard to (1) appropriate stakeholder participation processes, which allow incorporating local knowledge and preferences, (2) the improvement of the contents of flood maps by considering user-specific needs and (3) the improvement of the visualisation of risk maps in order to produce user-friendly and understandable risk maps for the user groups concerned. Furthermore, "idealised" maps for different user groups are presented: for strategic planning, emergency management and the public.

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