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

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.