Coastal Flood Damage Estimator: An Alternative to FEMA’s HAZUS Platform

Karamouz, ‪Mohammad; Fereshtehpour, Mohammad; Ahmadvand, Forough; Zahmatkesh, Zahra

doi:10.1061/(asce)ir.1943-4774.0001017

Cited by 29 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In order to estimate damages due to flood, a FDE model developed by Karamouz et al () is utilized. In that model, floodplain and land use layers are overlaid in geographic information system (GIS) environment and are considered as input to depth‐damage functions to quantify flood damages.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this purpose, DEMs of different spatial resolutions are employed as inputs to a hydrologically connected bathtub flood model and their effects on coastal flood hazard are assessed within an error analysis framework including commonly used error statistics. To quantify flood damage, flood damage estimator (FDE) model (Karamouz et al, ) is used. Moreover, a probabilistic framework based on geostatistical simulation of elevation error is developed to compare with deterministic approach and see how it can be used to improve the accuracy of flood risk assessment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

DEM Resolution Effects on Coastal Flood Vulnerability Assessment: Deterministic and Probabilistic Approach

Fereshtehpour

Karamouz

2018

Water Resources Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Flood modeling is highly influenced by topography data set. Lower resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) are usually used because of their availability and less computational burden when they are used in modeling applications. However, low accuracy of these DEMs yields to even lower accuracy in flood risk analysis through spatial modeling. This study aims to explore the DEM resolution effects on coastal flood risk assessments. For this purpose, deterministic and probabilistic approaches are employed for flood inundation modeling utilizing hydrologically connected bathtub method. High‐resolution light detection and ranging (LiDAR) DEM is considered as the most accurate data from which different resolution maps are obtained using resampling techniques. This is incorporated into an error analysis framework along with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Elevation Dataset (NED) DEMs. The probabilistic framework is developed by simulating the spatial variability of elevation errors compared to LiDAR DEM through a Monte Carlo‐based method called sequential Gaussian simulation. The proposed methodology is applied to the lower Manhattan in New York City. By integrating the flood model into the developed framework, flood inundation probability at each grid cells is obtained. Furthermore, using the concept of accuracy‐efficiency tradeoffs, a framework for selecting a suitable spatial resolution for probabilistic flood risk assessment has been suggested. The results show that by exercising a range of options presented in this paper, a broader insight into mapping resolution can be provided, improving flood assessment, evacuation zones, and mitigation plans depending upon the data availability in a region.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DEM Resolution Effects on Coastal Flood Vulnerability Assessment: Deterministic and Probabilistic Approach

Fereshtehpour

Karamouz

2018

Water Resources Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Flood probability interpolation tools can help address these issues by reducing the bias of spatially resolved flood probability maps. Refined flood probability maps can be useful to improve decisions, for example about where and how to build or whether to elevate a house, whether and how to change local zoning, and how to set fair flood insurance rates [9,[32][33][34][35]. shows the FEMA floodplains, derived from FEMA flood surface elevation data for the 1% and 0.2% annual chance (1 in 100-year and 1 in 500-year) floods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The FLOod Probability Interpolation Tool (FLOPIT): A Simple Tool to Improve Spatial Flood Probability Quantification and Communication

Zarekarizi

Roop-Eckart

Sharma

et al. 2021

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding flood probabilities is essential to making sound decisions about flood-risk management. Many people rely on flood probability maps to inform decisions about purchasing flood insurance, buying or selling real-estate, flood-proofing a house, or managing floodplain development. Current flood probability maps typically use flood zones (for example the 1 in 100 or 1 in 500-year flood zones) to communicate flooding probabilities. However, this choice of communication format can miss important details and lead to biased risk assessments. Here we develop, test, and demonstrate the FLOod Probability Interpolation Tool (FLOPIT). FLOPIT interpolates flood probabilities between water surface elevation to produce continuous flood-probability maps. FLOPIT uses water surface elevation inundation maps for at least two return periods and creates Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP) as well as inundation maps for new return levels. Potential advantages of FLOPIT include being open-source, relatively easy to implement, capable of creating inundation maps from agencies other than FEMA, and applicable to locations where FEMA published flood inundation maps but not flood probability. Using publicly available data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood risk databases as well as state and national datasets, we produce continuous flood-probability maps at three example locations in the United States: Houston (TX), Muncy (PA), and Selinsgrove (PA). We find that the discrete flood zones generally communicate substantially lower flood probabilities than the continuous estimates.

show abstract

“…Given that there was no such curve available for representing the flood damage in the studied area, the first step in developing the flood depth-damage curve was gathering relevant information. Earlier studies have proved that different types of buildings have different ratios of damage to the same flood event [45]. The inundated buildings are broadly categorized into residential, commercial, and industrial based on their land-use purposes.…”

Section: Buildings Damage Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Flood Loss Estimation and Evacuation Design Based on a 500-Year Extreme Flood Event in Syracuse City

2022

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To understand the potential risk of flooding in Syracuse City, New York State, USA, this research attempted to accomplish the flood hazard assessment for a simulated 500-year flood event in the downstream floodplain of Onondaga Creek within Syracuse. Based on the commonly used category of flood damages, the flood damage of Syracuse was divided into loss of buildings and loss of population. The results showed that the city’s center would have the highest damage rate for buildings and a total of 1139 buildings would be inundated, of which 326 buildings would be severely damaged by more than 80%. Furthermore, about 7390 people would be directly affected by the flood event, among which approximately 900 people might lose their lives. Communities near Onondaga Creek were assigned designated evacuation shelters based on the accessibility and distance to the shelters. The shortest available evacuation routes were calculated. More shelters should be provided in the central downtown area, with its large population, and distributed along the western bank of Onondaga Creek. This research offered a first approximate flood loss estimation that might lead to more attention and studies concerning a potential flood hazard in the future. It also provided science-based guidelines for city authorities to refer to in practical flood hazard mitigation.

show abstract

Coastal Flood Damage Estimator: An Alternative to FEMA’s HAZUS Platform

Cited by 29 publications

References 25 publications

DEM Resolution Effects on Coastal Flood Vulnerability Assessment: Deterministic and Probabilistic Approach

DEM Resolution Effects on Coastal Flood Vulnerability Assessment: Deterministic and Probabilistic Approach

The FLOod Probability Interpolation Tool (FLOPIT): A Simple Tool to Improve Spatial Flood Probability Quantification and Communication

Urban Flood Loss Estimation and Evacuation Design Based on a 500-Year Extreme Flood Event in Syracuse City

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About