FLOOD02918

• County: Denver
• Community: Denver
• Stream Name: South Platte River
• Basin: South Platte
• Title: Estimation of Flood Depth-Damage Curves for Residential, Commercial and Industrial Properties in the Denver Region
• Date: 10/1/1977
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Prepared By: Wayne J. Grahm ‎(Master of Science Candidate at CSU)‎
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Educational/Technical/Reference Information

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developed acre, h is average flood depth over inundated area, in feet,

and A is the area flooded in acres.

An example of synthetic damage curves can be found in the Susquehanna

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River study, as commented upon by Kates. (Kates, 1965) "Instead of curves

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for typical residences based on previous damage experience, Corps per-

sonnel are developing a family of curves from detailed construction-industry

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cost data on replacement and repair of sub-units of structure and contents".

Curves were also prepared for commercial structures but these used existing

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damage data.

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The fourth method, empirical depth-damage curves, requires a post flood

property survey of the flood plain and an estimate of damage for varying

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depths of water in the flood plain, This method is probably the most common

method in use for estimating damages. This information is then related to

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stage-frequency data to determine the damage-frequency curve. The amount

of detail used in this method is usually a function of the potential size

and cost of the project and funds allocated to the study.

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There are generally three types of empirical depth-damage curves being

used. The first type and probably most common, is one which relates damage

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as a percent of total structure or contents value for various depths of flood-

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ing. The second type relates damages per square foot for various types of

structures for various depths of flooding. The last type and probably least

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common in use is curves that relate damages for a certain kind of structure

for various depths of flooding. The last method generally assumes that all

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gas stations or restaurants, for example, are of the same size and construc-

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tion type and a given flood depth will damage all gas stations an equal dollar

amount.

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