Solutions aimed at reducing vulnerability to floods have to address both short and long term events. Climate change and change of land-use are gradual processes that require slow but continuous adaptation. Intense local precipitation or dike breaches are sudden and often unexpected, and result in acute impacts which require a vigilant flood accommodation and defence policy.

Due to the uncertainties we face, it is, therefore, prudent in long-term urban planning to adopt/use a precautionary approach, considering the long-term benefits and consequences of flood management strategies and actions: environmental and social impact assessment, cost-benefit analysis, life-cycle costs, and risk analysis should be factored into the decision making process to ensure the economic, societal and environmental costs and uncertainties are considered and well balanced.

Long-term urban planning calls for an integrated, area-oriented approach: such integration requires that planners, water managers and designers adopt a system approach. This approach addresses resiliency as an ongoing goal in every aspect of urban planning and urban system investment.

Targets and bottlenecks of the UFM project
A number of aspects of the integrated approach to urban flood management are relatively new to the world of urban planning. The UFM project addresses – in the practical setting of development projects – the bottlenecks that have so far hampered the adoption and effective implementation of flood risk management into urban planning practices (International Expert Meeting UFM, 2004):

• A lack of understanding of current and future flood risks and implications
• A lack of long-term planning and poorly integrated and comprehensive planning
• An inadequate regulation or legislation of local and regional authorities
• The conservative nature of the building sector

The UFM project is structured around five challenges and mutually dependant scientific building blocks:
flood risk assessment, resilient planning and building, creation of an integrated UFM plan, communication and emergency response, and policy and governance