Reducing the Vulnerability of Societies to Water Related Risks at the Basin Scale (Proceedings of the third International Symposium on Integrated Water Resources Management, Bochum, Germany, September 2006). IAHS Publ. 317, 2007, 312–316.

Flood losses in private households: analysis of influencing factors and implications for flood loss modelling

ANNEGRET H. THIEKEN¹, HEIDI KREIBICH¹, MEIKE MÜLLER², MATTHIAS NICKLISCH¹ & BRUNO MERZ¹

1 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Engineering Hydrology Section, Telegrafenberg, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany

thieken@gfz-potsdam.de

2 Deutsche Rückversicherung AG, Hansaallee 176, D-40549 Düsseldorf, Germany

Abstract Little is known about the factors that influence flood losses. There­fore, computer-aided telephone interviews were undertaken in 1697 private households in Germany after a severe flood in August 2002. Besides flood losses to buildings and household contents a variety of factors were addressed. In this paper, variables describing the flood impact (i.e. water level, flow velocity, flood duration and contamination of the flood water) and their effects on flood damage are analysed by cluster analysis. The analysis revealed several combinations of impact variables that caused high flood losses.

Key words Elbe; flood damage; flow velocity; Germany; hydrological impact; private households