The importance of law in flood risk management

Floods are becoming a very huge problem in most developed and developing countries, due to natural and human-induced risks and threats, which occur at river areas. In many cases, catastrophic events are caused by some inadequate human behaviour connected to, inter alia, reduction of the natural water retention by land due to industrial purposes or exploitation of meadows along river basins; no maintenance of levees; not respecting hydrogeological equilibrium; or not considering technical prescriptions or provisions to build along river basins. The adoption of flood risk management and planning in flood-prone areas are priorities to be dealt with in many river areas, as the United Nations and European Union stated. In this context, law plays a fundamental role to identify protection structures and liabilities in river areas, to define regulations and provisions in all stages of risk management. This research is aimed at showing how law intervenes in flood risk management and which subjects are covered; the importance to assess legal provisions which influence flood management or more generally water and river basin management and the interconnection at international, national and local level.