Protecting Built Heritage against Flood: Mapping Value Density on Flood Hazard Maps

Abstract

This paper describes the development and trial of a method (Quick Flood Risk Scan method) to determine the vulnerable value of monuments for flood risk assessment. It was developed in the context of the European Flood Directive for the Dutch Flood Risk Management Plan. The assessment method enables differentiation of cultural heritage by cultural value and vulnerability to water from rainfall or flooding. With this method, hazard or exposure maps can be turned into risk maps showing the potential loss of cultural value in case of flooding with a particular probability. The Quick Flood Risk Scan method has been tested and validated in the City of Dordrecht, the Netherlands. This application was facilitated by an Open Lab of the SHELTER project. The trial in Dordrecht showed the potential of a simple method to prioritize monuments without calculations. The Quick Flood Risk Scan method enables even the non-expert assessor to make a preliminary qualitative assessment that can be followed by further analysis of a relevant selection of assets. It is useful as a low tier that feeds into higher tiers of a multi-level framework. The non-expert assessor may be a policy maker, an owner of a heritage asset, or an inhabitant. Nonetheless, the trial also raised several questions, ranging from where in a building valuable heritage is located and what the role of the building owner is to how policy makers implement the method and its outcomes. These questions provide relevant input for fine-tuning the method.