Abstract
Abstract. There is now a wealth of data to calculate global flood exposure. Available datasets differ in detail and representation of both global population distribution and global flood hazard. Previous studies of global flood risk have used datasets interchangeably without addressing the impacts using different datasets could have on exposure estimates. By calculating flood exposure to different sized rivers using a model-independent geomorphological river flood susceptibility map (RFSM), we show that limits placed on the size of river represented in global flood models result in global flood exposure estimates that differ by more than a factor of 2. The choice of population dataset is found to be equally important and can have enormous impacts on national flood exposure estimates. Up-to-date, high-resolution population data are vital for accurately representing exposure to smaller rivers and will be key in improving the global flood risk picture. Our results inform the appropriate application of these datasets and where further development and research are needed.
Highlights
River floods are amongst the most frequent and damaging natural disasters globally (Wallemacq et al, 2015)
Rivers were classified into six different sizes, expressed in upstream drainage area (UDA), with the ranges increasing in powers of 10
This study has presented the first global picture of flood exposure categorized by different sized rivers
Summary
River floods are amongst the most frequent and damaging natural disasters globally (Wallemacq et al, 2015). Considerable effort has gone into understanding global river flooding over the last decade, and a number of global flood models (GFMs) have been developed concurrently (Yamazaki et al, 2011; Pappenberger et al, 2012; Winsemius et al, 2013; Rudari et al, 2015; Sampson et al, 2015; Dottori et al, 2016c). Limited work has been dedicated to the investigation of the human interaction with rivers of different sizes (Kummu et al, 2011) Understanding this interaction globally, with respect to river flooding, will inform us about the completeness of current global flood exposure studies and identify where further study and development are needed
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