HUMAN STABILITY IN A HIGH FLOOD HAZARD ZONE¹

Abstract

The delineation of high flood hazard zones within a flood plain is usually independent of the hydraulic parameters that constitute a life threatening situation. In order to defme human instability in high hazard areas, a study was conducted to identif' when an adult human could not stand or maneuver in a simulated flood flow. An analysis was performed on a rigid body monolith resulting in a toppling hazard envelope curve (velocity vs. depth). A 120 lb monolith was then constructed and tested to relate the actual flow velocity and depth at toppling to theory. A series of human subjects (90-20 1 ibs) were placed in a recirculating flume and tested to determine the velocity and depth of flow that caused their instability.The test results determined that the product number, which is the product of the velocity and depth at toppling of the monolith, closely compared to the theoretical envelope curve. The monolith results represent the lower limit of human stability. Also, the product number appeared to be a predictor of human instability in flood flow. A relationship was developed to estimate the product number at which a human subject becomes unstable as a function of the height and weight of the subject. (KEY TERMS: flood hazard; human stability; product number.) 1Paper No. 89010 of the Water Resources Bulletin. Discussions are open until April 1, 1990. 2Respectively, Professor,

Methods for the estimation of loss of life due to floods: a literature review and a proposal for a new method

“…Below, the methods are briefly evaluated with respect to their field of application, and background data and modelling approach. Abt et al (1989) and Karvonen et al (2000) Only original stability tests are listed in the table, not the formulations derived from these test by other authors methods, their field of application and shows which factors are taken into account in loss of life estimation. The methods have been developed for different types of floods in different regions.…”

“…It accounts for the effects of water depth, flow velocity and the possibilities for evacuation. Based on the results from human stability tests in flood flows (Abt et al 1989; see also Sect. 2.2), a function to account for the effects of high flow velocities is given.…”

“…Therefore several authors have investigated the issue of human (in) This topic's first experimental study was presumably (Abt et al 1989), as they state that ''previous work of this nature was not located in literature'' (p. 881). They conducted a series of tests in which human subjects and a monolith were placed in a laboratory flume in order to determine the water velocity and depth which caused instability.…”

“…The middle line has a value of hv = 1.35m 2 /s. This corresponds to the value that follows from the criterion proposed by Abt et al (1989) for a person with L = 1.75 m and m = 75 kg (see Eq. 11).…”

Flood hazard assessment for extreme flood events

“…the degree of flood hazard (Xia et al 2011), including: (1) formulae based on mechanical analysis and calibrated using laboratory experiments with models and/or real human subjects (Foster and Cox 1973;Abt et al 1989;Takahashi et al 1992;Karvonen et al 2000;Yee 2003;Jonkman and Penning-Rowsell 2008a, b;Russo et al 2013), and (2) formulae based on empirical or quasi-theoretical studies (Keller and Mitsch 1993;Lind et al 2004;Penning-Rowsell et al 2005a;Ramsbottom et al 2003Ramsbottom et al , 2006Ishigaki et al 2005Ishigaki et al , 2009). However, flood hazard assessments methods based only on laboratory experiments with models and/or real human subjects are usually too dependent on the physical characteristics of the model or the human subject, and cognitive characteristics of the tested human subjects, whereas flood hazard assessment methods based on empirical or quasi-theoretical work often excessively over-simplify the anatomy of human body and the hydraulic characteristics of the flow (Jonkman and Penning-Rowsell 2008a, b;Xia et al 2014).…”