Testing the use of reimbursement data to obtain damage curves in urbanised areas: the case of the Piedmont flood on October 2000

This article analyses the assessment of economic damages in urbanised flooded areas by testing the use of reimbursement data to obtain damage curves. Data coming from field observation of the 2000 flood in Piedmont, Italy, are used and the influence of local features and topography, as well as urban patterns are studied. Our starting point is the assessment of individual flooded elements, whose damages result from slightly more than 7000 refund claims. Damage functions estimation is carried out by using water depth and flow velocities obtained by 2D inundation model. Results show the relationship of damage versus water depth and versus flow velocity are strongly nonlinear and urban patterns playing a major role in explaining the amount of damage under given conditions. Moreover, results provide useful information for future ex ante estimation of potential flood damages and rewarding risk reductions and management actions.