Developing an Urban Flood Loss Functions for Residential Buildings (Case Study: Rasht City)

Floods in urban areas have always been associated with financial losses. While estimating the amount of flood loss for all contents of residential buildings is very important, the existing models only estimate the amount of direct damage caused to the building structure. Then, the damage caused to the movable content of the building is assessed as a percentage of the damage to the structure. Considering the inaccuracy of the existing models and because no such research has been done in Iran, in this research, determining the amount of direct loss of the contents of residential buildings, both movable and immovable, has been considered in full detail. The study was carried out in five neighborhoods with various economic levels in Rasht City, and through a questionnaire, 381 people living in the study area were evaluated and the appliances in their homes were valued at the current price. Finally, the flood depth-loss curves for all movable and immovable items were presented and the results obtained from them were compared with the results obtained from the loss functions used in other countries. The average loss calculated by the developed model was lower up to a depth of one meter and higher than the global models from this depth onwards. This indicates the need to produce loss functions caused by urban flooding at the national level. The method used in this research and the developed dimensionless loss functions are recommended for many similar urban areas in Iran.