ABSTRACT

Flood risk assessment in urban areas is a key aspect for land use planning and emergency management. Most of the flood-related fatalities are related to unaware behaviours and erroneous risk perception of people entering flooded ways or driving vehicles. Accordingly, rational vulnerability criteria for people and vehicles under the action of flood flows are a prerequisite of risk assessment.

This paper presents the operational formulations of two state-of-the-art physically based vulnerability models for people and vehicles impacted by a flow. The proposed vulnerability models are applied separately to the numerical results of a flood propagation model in urban area. The resulting risk maps allow to identify the unsafe areas for people and vehicles and may guide the setup of proper evacuation strategies and emergency plans.