Dissemination

Although organisational structures can differ widely between countries, a regional or national flood warning service typically has a wide range of responsibilities, which can include monitoring meteorological, river and coastal conditions, development and operation of flood forecasting models, and dissemination of flood warnings to the emergency services, local authorities and the public. Other responsibilities may include operation of control structures to mitigate flooding impacts, assisting with or coordinating the emergency response (evacuation, sandbags etc.), and contributing to post event assessments. These various activities may be performed within an overall framework of flood warning targets and performance monitoring, so that the lessons learned from each flood event guide future investments and technological improvements. This chapter discusses some of these organisational and procedural aspects to providing a flood warning service, and gives an overview of techniques for disseminating flood warnings and for implementing a flood warning system. Later chapters describe how the flood warning service fits into the wider emergency response to a flood event, which can potentially involve participants from many different organisations.