Flood Risk Management Plans

There is broad consensus on the premise that the global trend towards a higher incidence of damage caused by natural catastrophes observed to date has more to do with the increase in the properties exposed to the risk and their value than to an increase in the hazard level of these catastrophes. Therefore, the guiding theme in the majority of the contributions contained in this issue involves an examination of the many aspects of these concepts of exposure and vulnerability.

In the past twenty-five years there has been a significant rise in flood risk on the Mediterranean coast due to the increase in vulnerability and exposure to the hazard of heavy rains. This reflects the effects of urban expansion from 1990 to the present day, especially in the years of the so-called "property boom" which has made this part of Spain the European region with the highest volume of building activity over the period.

The National Observatory for Natural Hazards (ONRN) is an example of a public private partnership that brings together the state, insurers and the Caisse Centrale de Réassurance, which is founded on concerted governance that embraces territorial groups and partners on voluntary projects to pool data, experience and studies.

The Sendai Framework is the structure for concerted international action which aims to reduce disasters in the 2015-2030 period. It was adopted at the third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held over 14-18 March 2015 in the Japanese city of Sendai following a process of consultations, deliberations and inter-governmental negotiations that lasted three years.

In this study we are going to attempt to provide a general overview of the current status in Europe of the so-called fourth industrial revolution, in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence, with particular reference to the so-called autonomous vehicles.

In addition to aspects of a more general nature, the current Voluntary Jurisdiction Act (Law 15/2015 of 2 July published in the BOE, or official state gazette, on 3 July, hereafter the "LJV" for the Spanish) broaches certain questions which are of great interest as regards the day-to-day processing of case files by insurers and warrant a basic description of them in this article.

Coordinated and managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with member states as well as a range of European agencies, Copernicus is a program providing a range of service (land, atmosphere and ocean monitoring, emergency planning, security and climate change) based on both satellite and in situ observations.

European Commission study of the insurance of weather and climate-related disaster risk and European Environment Agency report on "Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in Europe: enhancing coherence of the knowledge base, policies and practices".

Article 33 of Law 35/2015 gives the key principles guiding the new system for assessing personal harm caused in traffic accidents: full reparation of the damage and structured compensation for it.

Floods in Spain represent a natural risk with major consequences. On average, every year some 10 serious flooding events occur. According to the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS) and the Directorate General for Civil Protection and Emergencies, floods have caused the death of 312 people in the past 20 years and property damage worth 800 million euros a year.