Author(s)

N. WALLIMAN, B. BAICHE, R. OGDEN, A. TAGG & M. ESCARAMEIA

Abstract

It is evident that there is no established flood damage prediction tool for individual non-domestic buildings that can account in any detail for their different types of construction. Unlike domestic buildings, non-domestic buildings often feature several different types of construction within the same premises. This absence makes it difficult for building owners and designers to calculate what appropriate measures should be taken to enhance resilience against floods. This paper, developed in the context of the European Community FP7 project FloodProBE, and presented at the Sustainable City 2012 Conference, discusses the current estimation methods used in the UK, Germany, USA and Australia, and suggests a way to improve on these by devising a tool capable of estimating damage to individual non-domestic buildings. Standard damage and repair parameters are investigated and the major variables are considered – those related to the flood event such as overfloor depth, velocity, rate of rise, debris, contaminants, frequency and duration of inundation and timing, and those relate to the building characteristics, such as structure, construction, materials and their vulnerability to water and drying characteristics, services and their locations. The aims and functions of a prototype flood damage estimation tool are described, including the type of users aimed at, and the method of calculation, input data required and types of output delivered. The model is demonstrated on one case study of an actual building damaged by flooding and the predicted cost compared with the actual cost of reinstatement. A sensitivity analysis is made on the fl ood characteristic inputs. The conclusions contend that that the prototype tool is worth developing to produce a useful way of predicting the costs of flood damage to individual buildings which will enable calculations to be made for assessing the cost–benefit analysis of installing flood mitigation/resilience measures to the building in order to protect it and its contents.

Keywords

Building construction, building flood vulnerability, cost–benefit analysis, critical infrastructure buildings, flood damage prediction, flood mitigation.