The comprehensive conference of Flood management and Engineering (IFMC) is held annually in order to discuss and publish a wide range of issues and challenges in flooding and the latest developments and findings in this field. It provides a unique opportunity for a variety of professionals, including engineers, planners, scientists and natural and social science researchers, health professionals, crisis managers, decision makers and policymakers, to come together in order to share perspectives and experiences.
The “۸th Comprehensive Conference on Flood Control and Engineering” is planned for Fall 2021 with the approach of flooding in Iran as the other side of the draught and accordance with the integrated flood management (IFM) approach. Lessons learned from the series of specialized conferences planned and held by secretariat of this conference over the past 10 years is a valuable source that will add a richness to the upcoming “Flood Control and Engineering conference 2021”. Notable achievements are:
To reach integrated flood management, it is necessary to achieve stakeholders’ involvement in watershed issues at both horizontal and vertical levels. Participation of stakeholders at horizontal level encompasses collaboration of all national or political actors in flood management (including municipalities, provincial governments, regional water companies, water and sewage companies, agricultural Jihad Organizations, natural resources and watershed management organizations, environment protection authorities, roads and urban planning authorities, weather bureau, etc.)
Participation of stakeholders at vertical level contains cooperation of all beneficiaries (including Villagers, citizens, farmers, owners of industrial and service units, etc.) and concerned people (including researchers, specialists, NGOs, etc.) with national or political actors in flood management at the watershed scale.
In order to achieve integrated flood management, a multidisciplinary perspective of flooding and collaboration of different specialties (including water resources management, river engineering, civil, crisis management, watershed management, agriculture, urban planning and architecture, sociology, law, ecology, etc.) on the watershed scale is required.
In line with the integrate flood management, it is necessary to restore the ecological status of river networks as Blue-Green infrastructure of human settlements. Due to the historical role of rivers in livelihoods and development of ancient civilizations, planning and actions for revival of river ecosystems as the backbone for integrated flood management is necessary.
To achieve the integrated flood management, connection between cities/villages with watersheds is critical. Urban/rural planning and urban/rural design in line with regional planning should be done on the watershed scale and in close interaction with it.
In order to achieve integrated flood management, it is necessary to establish a full water cycle in the watersheds. Flood is considered as a surface water source and like other water sources should be in the correlation with water, food and energy.