Average annual wind loss libraries to support resilient housing and community decision-making

Abstract

ABSTRACT One of the key components to increase the resiliency of communities from wind hazards is enhancing individuals` and homeowner’s resilience continuously during and after a storm. A variety of wind hazard risk assessment methodologies are available; however, in spite of advances in damage and loss modeling, the systematic development of loss libraries has been largely overlooked in scholarly literature. This paper develops a straightforward, matrix-based mathematical formulation to rapidly generate a library of average annual loss (AAL) data for multiple building types across a variable wind hazard domain through convolution of hazard and loss functions and Monte Carlo simulation. The methodology is implemented for wind loss functions included in FEMA’s HAZUS-MH Hurricane Model to develop building, contents, loss of use, and total AAL loss libraries for 160 variations of wood-framed, single-family, one-story homes located in the continental US. The developed methodology provides a practical, easy-to-use approach for wind hazards that can be implemented immediately for a variety of applications to support individual building- and community-level wind hazard risk reduction decision-making.