A Community-Based Assessment of Flash-Flood Vulnerability in Texas and the Influence from Different Social Variables

Keywords: Flash flood, vulnerability, spatial-temporal analysis, risk assessment, disaster mitigation
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 16

Abstract

As one of the most dangerous natural disasters, flash floods account for 52% of economic losses and over 70% of fatalities and injuries caused by flood-related disasters. There is an urgent need to evaluate community-based flash flood vulnerability, identify its driving factors, and develop mitigation strategies in different communities to reduce damages from future events. However, most precedent analyses of flash flood vulnerability rely on subjectively selected social variables and the developed models lack validation. This project aims to fill this gap by developing a framework to assess vulnerability at the community-level using historical flash flood data and determine the socioeconomic and environmental factors that affect vulnerability. Flash flood records and socioeconomic data collected from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Census Bureau were utilized in this project. First, this study statistically analyzed the location, frequency, and damage of flash flood events in Texas at block-group-level Second, we defined and calculated a flash flood vulnerability index as the average damage (sum of property and crops damage) per capita per event. Third, we calculated the vulnerability index. Fourth, the most frequently used social variables in vulnerability assessment are collected, and their correlation with the derived vulnerability index was examined. The results could support further analysis of natural disaster risk assessment and monitoring and assist disaster mitigation and responding.