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Diversification of flood protection assets for reducing risk of extreme and catastrophic flood losses
Risk Analysis (2013)
  • Qian Zhou
  • James Lambert
  • Chris Karvetski
  • Jeffrey Keisler, University of Massachusetts Boston
  • Igor Linkov
Abstract
Recent catastrophic losses due to floods require developing resilient approaches to flood risk protection. This paper assesses how diversification of a system of coastal protections might decrease the probabilities of extreme flood losses. The study compares the performance of portfolios each consisting of four types of flood protection assets in a large region of dike rings. A parametric analysis suggests conditions in which diversifications of the types of included flood protection assets decreases extreme flood losses. Increased return periods of extreme losses are associated with portfolios where the asset types have low correlations of economic risk. The effort highlights the importance of understanding correlations across asset types in planning for large-scale flood protection. It allows explicit integration of climate change scenarios in developing flood mitigation strategy.
Publication Date
2013
Citation Information
Qian Zhou, James Lambert, Chris Karvetski, Jeffrey Keisler, et al.. "Diversification of flood protection assets for reducing risk of extreme and catastrophic flood losses" Risk Analysis Vol. Forthcoming (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_keisler/42/