Does HEPEX need the Global Flood Record?

As described in the Global Flood Partnership’s (GFP)* Draft Concept Paper the Global Flood Record component of the GFP aims to develop and maintain a global flood hazard and loss record to international standards. While archives of flood data already exist, rather than reinventing the wheel the aim of the Global Flood Record is to develop a more consistent format for combining all these different data into one consistent record that can be easily utilised. This requires decisions such as:

1. How to issue unique flood identification numbers
2. The minimum size of flood to be included
3. The precision to which the flood is to be recorded (spatial and temporal scale)
4. What information should be included within the database

Of course, given the number of potential different users of this record representing interests as diverse as the insurance industry and the disaster risk reduction community, this is not an easy task. To get a feel for what may be required a survey is currently being run to identify the variety of needs of different users, and obviously it would be prudent to have a strong representation from the HEPEX community so that our needs are taken into account when designing the Global Flood Record’s structure. The (short) survey can be accessed here.

Also feel free to use this post to make any comments (or vent your frustrations!) about how you might use the Global Flood Record. What information would you like it to contain, and what structure should it take for you to be able to use it?

*In early March 2014 the Global Flood Partnership met at ECMWF in Reading, the meeting report is available here.

Liz is a HEPEX columnist 2014  and will be contributing to this blog over the year. Follow her columns here.