Author(s)

M. Huttenlau, K. Schneeberger, B. Winter, J. Reiss, J. Stötter

Abstract

Flood risk management is an appropriate method to understand and mitigate the consequences of flooding which regularly causes significant losses to property and human lives. Therefore, the analysis of flood risk is a key issue. Within this risk analysis, direct tangible damages are important flood hazard impact indicators. This paper shows an approach of how to assess the potential direct monetary damages in a mountain meso-scale study area (Austrian Province of Vorarlberg). The approach comprises the following key components: (i) asset pooling and its monetary assessment, (ii) exposure analysis, and (iii) susceptibility analysis. By applying this method, loss probability relations reflecting the potential direct monetary damages of flood events with a return period of 30 yrs, 100 yrs and 300 yrs were derived for all flood exposed communities in the study area. The results illustrate the possible uncertainties that are inherent in the procedure of assessing direct monetary damages. By highlighting this significant variability, it is a valuable contribution to a comprehensive flood risk assessment framework.

Keywords

flood risk, damage functions, asset assessment, direct tangible damages