Depth-Damage Curve for Flood Damage Assessments Industrial and Commercial Sectors

Because of geographic location, Taiwan encounters frequent flood attack due to typhoon or storm. events. Flood hazards usually cause major damage of assets and casualties where with the high density of population and economical activities. Flood risk management becomes one of the important tasks for government. The damage assessment is the basis of flood risk management and disaster mitigation. The depth-damage curve has been employed as a major tool for assessing flood damages. Because flood damages may depend on the types and uses of structures as well as the content in it, the depth-damage curves will have. different characteristics varied with land uses and region. This paper develops depth-damage curves for industrial and commercial sectors based on the damage data collected after the flood event of Nari typhoon (2001). Because different economic activities may possess different damage characteristics, the industrial and commercial activities are categorized as manufacturing, service, wholesale, and retail. Each category is further divided into two sub-groups of small and large-scales. A depth-damage relationship is developed for each category and subgroup for application in assessment of regional flood damage.