The US Army Corps of Engineers Scalable Approach to Estimating Loss of Life from Flooding

Abstract

Abstract.Although flooding can lead to many types of severe consequences, the primary objective of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) dam and levee safety programs are to manage risk to the public who rely on those structures to keep them reasonably safe from flooding. Thus, reducing the risk associated with loss of life is paramount. USACE employs a scalable approach to estimating loss of life, where the goal is to invest an appropriate amount of resources to answer the question at hand. Given the large number of dams and levees within the USACE SRUWIROLR RYHU GDPV DQG PLOHV RI OHYHHV D ³RQH VL]H ILWV DOO´ DSproach does not work. Screening-level risk assessments are carried out to initially characterize risk. That initial risk characterization informs prioritization of additional efforts such as interim risk management activities and more detailed risk assessments. More detailed risk assessments inform investment in long-term risk reduction measures, which include analysis and selection of major modification activities and implementation of non-structural measures including emergency management and evacuation planning. This paper describes the USACE scalable approach for estimating loss of life from flood events.

Analysis of flood warning and evacuation efficiency by comparing damage and life-loss estimates with real consequences related to the São Francisco tailings dam failure in Brazil

“…The full version of the model is integrated into HEC-LifeSim v.1.0 (USACE, 2018). This version is the most used in North American consultancy and insurance companies (Needham et al, 2016), and it is being also widely used worldwide (Risher et al, 2017;Hill et al, 2018;Kalinina et al, 2018;Leong-Cuzack et al, 2019;Wang, 2019;Tomura et al, 2020;Bilali et al, 2021;Kalinina et al, 2021;Silva et al, 2021;Bilali et al, 2022).…”

New hybrid method for vulnerability assessment in floodplain areas exposed to dam break

“…The other approach for estimating flood mortality risk is the scalable approach, developed by the US army corps of engineers, which is based on three factors: flood severity, exposed population, and shelter type 10 . Penning‐Rowsell et al introduced a risk assessment framework to estimate injury and loss of life.…”

“…The other approach for estimating flood mortality risk is the scalable approach, developed by the US army corps of engineers, which is based on three factors: flood severity, exposed population, and shelter type. 10 Penning-Rowsell et al introduced a risk assessment framework to estimate injury and loss of life. This framework contains four stages for risk assessment: hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment, and risk characterization.…”

Effectiveness of a Dam-Breach Flood Alert in Mitigating Life Losses: A Spatiotemporal Sectorisation Analysis in a High-Density Urban Area in Brazil

“…HEC-LifeSim 1.0.1 software fully incorporates the agent-based LifeSim model [33]. This model stands out as one of the most up-to-date and comprehensive for the proposed purposes, widely used in North American consulting and insurance companies [34]. It has also been applied in various studies [19,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], and its application is growing in different countries (Australia, Brazil, Morocco and Switzerland).…”