11:15 AM - 11:30 AM
[AHW19-08] Toward a practical socio-hydrology: a case study in the lower Kelani River Basin community in Sri Lanka
★Invited Papers
Keywords:sociohydrology, floods, risk information, Sri Lanka, practical
Since the emergence of socio-hydrology as a discipline to understand the co-evolution of human and water, researches on human-water co-evolution have progressed around the world, led by the Panta Rhei science decade of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS). Socio-hydrology started as an empirical and interdisciplinary discipline to find “regularity” or “recurrence” in human-water system interactions. However, the studies are now going beyond that framework and becoming more practical or transdisciplinary, such as water resource management, risk management, and adaptive design. (e.g., Session HS5.11 of the EGU General Assembly 2023, “Coupled human water systems: advances in hydro-social and socio-hydrological research to support water management and governance”, Convener: Britta Höllermann)
In this presentation, first, we overview the progress of the social hydrological studies and then introduce a case study in the lower Kelani River basin (LKRB) in Sri Lanka. This case study aims to understand the impacts of flood risk information (FRI), such as hazard maps and disaster education, on improving the collective memory of floods, and to incorporate these dynamics into a socio-hydrological model. We conducted two interviews by incorporating FRI in several flood-prone LKRB communities at a six-month interval. Based on the survey results, we applied an improved socio-hydrological model to evaluate the effect of FRI on flood damage reduction. The results suggest that the output of socio-hydrological model could contribute to the quantitative evaluation of the effect of flood risk information on flood risk management. Finally, based on the results of case study, we will discuss the practical applicability of socio-hydrology to flood risk management in Asia and Japan.
In this presentation, first, we overview the progress of the social hydrological studies and then introduce a case study in the lower Kelani River basin (LKRB) in Sri Lanka. This case study aims to understand the impacts of flood risk information (FRI), such as hazard maps and disaster education, on improving the collective memory of floods, and to incorporate these dynamics into a socio-hydrological model. We conducted two interviews by incorporating FRI in several flood-prone LKRB communities at a six-month interval. Based on the survey results, we applied an improved socio-hydrological model to evaluate the effect of FRI on flood damage reduction. The results suggest that the output of socio-hydrological model could contribute to the quantitative evaluation of the effect of flood risk information on flood risk management. Finally, based on the results of case study, we will discuss the practical applicability of socio-hydrology to flood risk management in Asia and Japan.