Areas at Risk - Concept and Methods for Urban Flood Risk Assessment (PDF)

Urban expansion and associated land-use changes increase both flood hazards and exposure. This e-book provides a conceptual and methodological framework for the analysis of urban flood risk in dynamic and complex settings, and proposes a comprehensive, system-oriented, integrated approach for its assessment.

The risk assessment is carried out using case-specific indicators on the sub-city scale in two municipalities of Santiago de Chile. Relevant information is derived from various geodata sources, and together with explorative scenarios, is used to estimate future risk development. All data about hazard, elements at risk, and their vulnerability are compiled to a GIS-based risk map to join the risk-relevant components, to show their interrelations, and to provide a tool for monitoring and evaluating their changes over time. Finally, previous deficits in flood risk prevention and mitigation are outlined and recommendations on risk reduction are made.

Annemarie Müller studied geography at the University of Jena, Germany and Dalhousie University of Halifax, Canada. After finishing her MSc thesis on vulnerability assessment at the ITC Enschede, the Netherlands, she started working on her PhD on urban flood risk assessment at the Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ) Leipzig, Germany, where she has been working as a scientific collaborator since.