Flood Risk Management Plans

We have already been working on prevention for several years but perhaps, given that in the last few months of 2019 and those coming into this year we have had to cope with a great many losses from natural events, such as the major low-pressure areas that have caused huge floods, the need for prevention has been put into even sharper perspective.

We have already been working on prevention for several years but perhaps, given that in the last few months of 2019 and those coming into this year we have had to cope with a great many losses from natural events, such as the major low-pressure areas that have caused huge floods, the need for prevention has been put into even sharper perspective.

On the middle stretch of the Ebro, the recurrence of the flooding phenomenon and the economic and social impact of water level rises set the river basin authority to work in its quest for innovative action to curb the adverse effect of flooding a long time ago.

Having publicised its Guides to adapting to flood risk, the Directorate General for Water at the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge is working on a set of pilot cases for adapting to flood risk. These seek to put the concepts in the guides into practice, pick out the general lines of action to apply to buildings according to their purpose, location and constructional attributes, and draw together good practices.

The coast is the first line of defence against the effects of climate change on the oceans and is, perhaps for that very reason, all the more vulnerable to its pernicious effects. It thus transpires that on the coast we encounter an interesting store of proof of how society can implement adaptation measures satisfactorily.

According to the European Environment Agency (EEA, 2019), total reported economic loss from extreme climate events in Europe for 1980-2017 amounted to approximately 435 billion euros, of which 37 billion was in Spain.

The (re)insurance industry is a critical actor to engage and to understand its current and potential contributions to the assessment of what we have called Natural Assurance Schemes (NAS).

To be able to refer to an accident as covered by the Law on civil liability and insurance in the use of motor vehicles, which was endorsed by Royal Decree-Law (RDL) 8/2004 of 29 October (the "LRCSCVM" for the Spanish), it must be categorised as a "traffic event" caused by a "motor vehicle". If these two circumstances are not attendant, the special regulatory framework that is established in the LRCSCVM and its regulations does not apply.

This is a timely note that gives context to all the issues currently on the table in the debate on how to respond from an insurance standpoint to this type of risk which had never previously risen up with such force in our life-times.

There is a more or less apocryphal legend which suggests that the ironic aphorism "may you live in interesting times" originates from a 17th century Chinese curse. Whatever its source, the fact is that the present at the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS), both for the institution and those who are part of it, has been an almost continuous stream of "interesting times" over the past few months.