Coping with floods requires decisions on many levels, from the general policy of land management and urban development to the specific level of engineering design, including the implementation of appropriate warning systems and the evaluation of social response to the many facets of flooding.

It is obvious that decisions must be taken with available knowledge. But it is also apparent that improving further our knowledge is imperative in order to build better decision support systems which take into account the complexities and interactions of an integrated management of flood prone areas.

By expanding the comparative knowledge of recent catastrophic events in both the US and Europe, it was suggested that existing methodologies and approaches need to be revised, by better understanding of the interactive character in the many natural and social processes involved.

The discussion groups organised their deliberations around a number of categories, listing down for each category the most needed research actions together with their synthetic justifications.

A preliminary list of the agreed categories and research needs are hereinafter annexed. The final text including the justification of the proposed research actions will be circulated as soon as possible.