Numerical Modelling

Numerical modelling for the socio-economic consequences of flooding

By using spatial information (location of buildings, building use, typology of occupation, profiling of inhabitants, …) and economic information (value of buildings, the value of infrastructures, …) a characterization of the building blocks will be performed. Building blocks are units that are minimally surrounded by 3 routes and/or a combination of roads, larger infrastructure elements (e.g. railway track) or natural limits (e.g. coast line or rivers). The whole inhabited part of the frontline of the coastline will be split up in building blocks creating a building block map (“bouwblokkenkaart” in Dutch). Taking in account diversity of the coastline occupation 3 test sites will be selected.

The selection of the test sites will be done together with stakeholders from the Belgian coastal communities and the project partners. They must be representative for different typologies of the dense occupation of the inhabited part of the coastline. For the selected sites a detailed socio-economic profile of the functions, occupation and value of the concerned building blocks together with their resistance profile will be established.

The maximum damage for each building block in the test sites has to be defined; the maximum damage and maximum total cost will be calculated conform earlier used methodologies for flood damage calculation in the hinterland. When a maximum damage map is combined with predicted flood heights and velocity maps, real damage maps can be obtained. Based on the different return periods risk maps can also be calculated.