Freeboard Life-Cycle Benefit-Cost Analysis of a Rental Single-family Residence for Landlord, Tenant, and Insurer

Gnan, Ehab; Mostafiz, Rubayet Bin; Rahim, Md Adilur; Friedland, Carol J.; Rohli, Robert V.; Taghinezhad, Arash; Assi, Ayat Al

doi:10.5194/nhess-2022-222

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(40 reference statements)

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“…Flood risk assessment has been performed at many scales, from the micro- (Gnan et al, 2022b , c ) to the meso- (Lüdtke et al, 2019 ) and macro- (Olsen et al, 2015 ; Armal et al, 2020 ). Although studies at these scales enable people and communities to prepare most effectively for floods and develop risk maps, some limitations need to be addressed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flood risk assessment for residences at the neighborhood scale by owner/occupant type and first-floor height

et al. 2023

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Evaluating flood risk is an essential component of understanding and increasing community resilience. A robust approach for quantifying flood risk in terms of average annual loss (AAL) in dollars across multiple homes is needed to provide valuable information for stakeholder decision-making. This research develops a computational framework to evaluate AAL at the neighborhood level by owner/occupant type (i.e., homeowner, landlord, and tenant) for increasing first-floor height (FFH). The AAL values were calculated here by numerically integrating loss-exceedance probability distributions to represent economic annual flood risk to the building, contents, and use. A simple case study for a census block in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, revealed that homeowners bear a mean AAL of $4,390 at the 100-year flood elevation (E100), compared with $2,960, and $1,590 for landlords and tenants, respectively, because the homeowner incurs losses to building, contents, and use, rather than only two of the three, as for the landlord and tenant. The results of this case study showed that increasing FFH reduces AAL proportionately for each owner/occupant type, and that two feet of additional elevation above E100 may provide the most economically advantageous benefit. The modeled results suggested that Hazus Multi-Hazard (Hazus-MH) output underestimates the AAL by 11% for building and 15% for contents. Application of this technique while partitioning the owner/occupant types will improve planning for improved resilience and assessment of impacts attributable to the costly flood hazard.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flood risk assessment for residences at the neighborhood scale by owner/occupant type and first-floor height

et al. 2023

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“…The contribution of this research is the development of a novel method to estimate flood hazard characteristics based on existing hydrologic-modeled flood surfaces. Ultimately, this technique will help government agencies and community officials to formulate policies and homeowners to make more informed decisions regarding insurance purchase (Rahim et al, 2021 , 2022b ), mitigation strategy (Zhou et al, 2012 ; Zarekarizi et al, 2020 ), and long-term planning (Gnan et al, 2022b , c ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A data-driven spatial approach to characterize the flood hazard

et al. 2022

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Model output of localized flood grids are useful in characterizing flood hazards for properties located in the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA—areas expected to experience a 1% or greater annual chance of flooding). However, due to the unavailability of higher return-period [i.e., recurrence interval, or the reciprocal of the annual exceedance probability (AEP)] flood grids, the flood risk of properties located outside the SFHA cannot be quantified. Here, we present a method to estimate flood hazards that are located both inside and outside the SFHA using existing AEP surfaces. Flood hazards are characterized by the Gumbel extreme value distribution to project extreme flood event elevations for which an entire area is assumed to be submerged. Spatial interpolation techniques impute flood elevation values and are used to estimate flood hazards for areas outside the SFHA. The proposed method has the potential to improve the assessment of flood risk for properties located both inside and outside the SFHA and therefore to improve the decision-making process regarding flood insurance purchases, mitigation strategies, and long-term planning for enhanced resilience to one of the world's most ubiquitous natural hazards.

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“…𝐴𝐴𝐿 B$ , 𝐴𝐴𝐿 C$ , and 𝐴𝐴𝐿 use$ are the losses in absolute currency for building, contents, and restoration time, respectively, which vary with occupant types (i.e. owner-occupant, landlord, and tenant; Gnan et al, 2022c). 𝐴𝐴𝐿 𝑇 is the total loss, which is the summation of 𝐴𝐴𝐿 B$ , 𝐴𝐴𝐿 C$ , 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴𝐴𝐿 use$ .…”

Section: Cost Calculationmentioning

confidence: 99%

FloodSafeHome: Evaluating Benefits and Savings of Freeboard for Improved Decision-Making in Flood Risk Mitigation

Friedland

Lee

Mostafiz

et al. 2022

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Freeboardelevation of a structure above the base flood elevation (BFE)is a critical component in mitigating or avoiding flood losses. However, the unrevealed benefits and savings of freeboard installation have prevented communities from adopting this approach. To improve decision-making for flood-vulnerable communities and enhance flood risk mitigation strategies, this study presents the methodology underlying a new webtool, FloodSafeHome, that estimates comprehensively the economic benefits and savings of freeboard installation for new construction of residential buildings. Specifically, the proposed evaluation framework has been designed to calculate monthly savings for individual buildings by assessing freeboard cost, insurance savings per year, and expected annual flood loss. This new evaluation method is built into a web-based, decision-making tool for use by the public and community leaders in three southeastern Louisiana parishes, to identify expected future benefits of building residences with freeboard and enhance their decision-making processes with interactive risk/benefit analysis features. For example, results indicate the levels of freeboard that optimize the costbenefit ratio for flood-insured homes in the study area. This approach is expected to improve long-term flood resilience and provide cost-efficient flood mitigation strategies particularly in disaster vulnerable regions.

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Freeboard Life-Cycle Benefit-Cost Analysis of a Rental Single-family Residence for Landlord, Tenant, and Insurer

Cited by 11 publications

References 36 publications

Flood risk assessment for residences at the neighborhood scale by owner/occupant type and first-floor height

Flood risk assessment for residences at the neighborhood scale by owner/occupant type and first-floor height

A data-driven spatial approach to characterize the flood hazard

FloodSafeHome: Evaluating Benefits and Savings of Freeboard for Improved Decision-Making in Flood Risk Mitigation

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