Neglecting uncertainties biases house-elevation decisions to manage riverine flood risks.

ABSTRACT: Homeowners around the world elevate houses to manage flood risks. Deciding how high to elevate a house poses a nontrivial decision problem. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends elevating existing houses to the Base Flood Elevation (the elevation of the 100-year flood) plus a freeboard. This recommendation neglects many uncertainties. Here we analyze a case-study of riverine flood risk management using a multi-objective robust decision-making framework in the face of deep uncertainties. While the quantitative results are location-specific, the approach and overall insights are generalizable. We find strong interactions between the economic, engineering, and Earth science uncertainties, illustrating the need for expanding on previous integrated analyses to further u

SUBMITTER: Zarekarizi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7588474 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature