Track: Emergency Management and Public Safety
Estimating Flood-Related Economic Impact
Jerrell R. Ballard, Jr.M. Rose Kress
This paper describes a spatially explicit approach to estimating flood-related economic damage in the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Through an iterative process, cost-surface concepts are applied to the problem of determining the flow path of floodwater over an elevation grid of the floodplain. The resulting flood surface representation properly accounts for the presence of man-made flood protection structures and natural barriers to overland flow. Using surveyed first floor structure elevations, the water depth in each structure is calculated and the damage, in dollars, is determined from depth-damage relationships. Total estimated damage is presented for various types of structures.
Jerrell R. Ballard, Jr.
USAE Waterways Experiment Station
3909 Halls Ferry Road
Vicksburg, MS 39180-6133
USA
Telephone: 601-634-2946
Fax: 601-634-3726
E-mail: ballard@zen.wes.army.mil