Development of flood damage assessment method for residential areas considering various house types for Bago Region of Myanmar

Abstract

Development of a flood damage estimation method that considers house type is important to evaluate the effectiveness of different adaptation options. This study aimed to analyze flood impact on residential areas and household damage, to develop a new, more accurate, method for flood damage assessment, considering different house types. To do this it was necessary to understand the vulnerability of different house types and household assets, and to develop flood damage functions which accounted for these variations. We considered the Bago River basin of Myanmar as a study area. A detailed household questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data. Using this data, new flood damage functions for residential buildings and assets for different types of house were developed by considering building characteristics such as construction materials, number of stories, and height of plinth level from the ground. The actual and potential flood damage data were combined to develop flood damage functions with improved accuracy for extreme floods. Then, flood damage to residential buildings and assets for recent floods were assessed by developing a grid-based approach, integrating hydrologic-hydraulic and flood loss estimation models. The reduction in expected annual damage by use of different flood adaptation options for residential buildings was also evaluated quantitatively. The results of this study show that elevating the plinth level of the building and adding an additional story to the house can significantly reduce the flood damage to residential buildings and assets, and these results provide useful information for establishing flood protection adaptation measures.