Discharge-damage curve and EAD estimates in the Pamplona metropolitan area (Spain) by using insurance data

Abstract

Flood risk assessment studies require information about direct damages that can be summarised through the expected annual damage (EAD). The discharge-damage curve for a given location is required to estimate EAD. The Pamplona metropolitan area with around 335,000 inhabitants has been selected as a pilot site, as part of the activities of the EIT Climate-KIC Demonstrator project SAFERPLACES. Insurance flood losses in the Pamplona metropolitan area in the period 1996-2018 were supplied by the Spanish ‘Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros’ (CCS). A set of flood events with both flood hydrographs and insurance flood losses were selected. Flood extensions and water depths in the Pamplona metropolitan area for such selected flood events were estimated by using a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model, calibrated with the known water extension for a given flood event. A damage model has been developed to estimate direct damages by using a set of water depth-relative damage curves in terms of building occupancy, calibrating the results with the insurance flood losses supplied by CCS. With such results, the dischargedamage curve and EAD were estimated in the metropolitan area of Pamplona