Flood fragility and vulnerability functions for residential buildings in the Province of Leyte, Philippines

Abstract

The Philippines experiences frequent flooding, but, despite expansive tools for risk reduction, there remain gaps in understanding generalised relationships between flood events and damage to residential structures for regions outside the nation's capital. This gap has limited the ability to model flood risk and damage without robust functions to link hazards and housing vulnerability. This research draws on 394 household surveys to empirically derive a suite of flood fragility and vulnerability functions for residential structures in the Province of Leyte for light material, elevated light material and masonry structures. The results showed that masonry construction was more resilient to floods compared to light material counterparts. Elevated light material structures also exhibited lower damages at low inundations but tend to fail abruptly at flood depths greater than 3 m. By empirically deriving flood damage functions, the findings contribute to a more localised approach to quantifying housing vulnerability and risk that can be used for catastrophe and risk modelling, with applications for government agencies, the insurance industry and disaster risk researchers. This research lays the foundation for future flood risk mapping with growing significance under climate change.