Quantification of economic flood losses of large scale damage scenarios

Floods occur regularly in Germany. In recent years, extreme events occurred in the Elbe and Danube but also in the Rhine catchment. The economic losses due to floods increase, due to increasing building activity in areas close to rivers. Additionally, the number of flood events increases in some regions.

Objective of the project is the supply of large scale flood scenarios for Germany as well as the development of an approach for flood loss estimations, as basis for probable maximum loss assessments (PML). Result of this approach is information on the risk, i.e. losses and their exceedance probability for selected flood scenarios at the Rhine, the Elbe and the Danube River. Flood scenarios with recurrence intervals of up to 500 years will be in focus. The applicability of the approach in whole Germany will be tested with some large scale flood scenarios.

© Dr. H. Apel

flood in December 1993 at the Rhine River