The future management of flood risk will not come from a single technical solution or policy but from a range of responses which are tuned to the specific circumstances at a local or regional scale, taking account of national governance structures and public attitudes towards flood risks. This diversity of approach is recognised by the embodiment of the subsidiarity principle in the European Directive on the assessment and management of flood risks. This paper covers some of the main areas of innovation achieved within the European funded research project FLOODsite. These innovations will facilitate the implementation of the European Directive actions of flood risk assessments, risk mapping and the preparation of flood risk management plans. FLOODsite does not propose a single integrated methodology for flood risk management; rather it provides a set of linked methods which support integrated flood risk management. We also compare FLOODsite against the ambitions set for the EC Sixth Framework Programme Integrated Projects
