Cascading Effects of Floods – An evaluation of the flood risk maps and management plans produced by the County Administrative Boards

Sammanfattning: Flood is the most common natural disaster globally, affecting human health and assets. The work with the Swedish ordinance of flood risk is connected to the sustainment of vital societal functions. This thesis examines how direct and indirect effects of floods are considered in Swedish legislation and when the County Administrative Boards produce flood risk maps and management plans. Moreover, it identifies potential impediments to use GIS in support of flood risk management and how those barriers could be overcome. The data collection methods used were qualitative content analysis and semi-structured interviews. It was concluded that the County Administrative Boards are aware of the indirect effects of floods on vital societal functions. However, more in-depth analyses of indirect effects to a large extent are lacking. Three main factors limiting the ability of the boards to perform analysis of indirect effects were discovered. These were secrecy legislation, GIS-competence, and communication between people with different fields of expertise. Potential measures to reduce observed challenges include enhancing the security of IT-systems, extracting sensitive information from public documents, and collaborative workshops and educations for risk managers and GIS-experts to increase their awareness about each other’s terminologies and areas of expertise.