On 30 August, at the National Stadium in Warsaw, a scientific conference took place, hosted by the Polish Water Holding Polish Waters. Since the beginning of 2018, they are responsible for water management in the country, including activities in the field of protection against floods and drought. Currently, the Holding oversees the second planning stage related to flood risk in accordance with the requirements of the European Union. The current phase focuses an on updating the preliminary flood risk assessment (aWORP).

The conference started with an introduction and a presentation of the legal basis and the schedule of reviewing and updating aWORP. Methodology used by experts involved in the study was also presented. As a result of their activities, the following data were submitted to Provincial and Marshal Offices in Poland for an opinion:

• Spatial data in terms of areas exposed to the hazard of flooding;
• Database of historical floods;
• Database of probable floods;
• WORP result database;
• Description of the WORP database;
• Report on the WORP review and update;
• WORP maps (cartographic visualizations);
• WORP map layouts.

So far, only the representatives of the Łódzkie province have reviewed the documents.

Next, there was a summary of works associated with questionnaires sent to local government units. 3645 institutions were asked from 9 to 23 questions. Additional data were collected from cities and municipalities with very high and high flood risk. It was necessary to extend data verification, as the information collected from local governments were often different than the facts. The most important results showing the scale of the problem is the fact that in 54% of the surveyed local government units floods occurred in the past. Most often, river floods (41%) and rainfall floods (39%).

The study takes into account data provided by the National Fire Brigade, as a unit directly responding to floods. According to them, most common were rainfall floods, and not river floods. There was no correlation between daily rainfall and the number of interventions. The National Fire Brigade also noted the need for closer cooperation between different institutions. It suggested the establishment of a unit responsible for the development of methodology for determining areas exposed to the effects of excessive rain, the preparation and educational materials and instructions. It is planned to support cities through the implementation of a financial and technical system and the preparation of rainfall flood maps.