Toward an adequate level of detail in flood risk assessments

In this article, the researchers aim at discussing the details needed for a flood risk assessment considering three key questions for guidance (i)Which processes are relevant in the context at hand? (ii)Which (temporal) dynamics are relevant?  and (iii)Which spatial and temporal resolution is needed? Flood risk assessments require different disciplines to understand and model the underlying components hazard, exposure, and vulnerability.

The presented case studies of the individual risk components show that detailed considerations of specific aspects have potentially substantial effects on the flood risk estimation when considered in isolation. The quantification of the influence of different levels of detail in overarching assessments, which identifies the details that matter most for the outcomes, would support the identification of the adequate choice of detail in a given context. The implementation of such quantitative studies in various representative contexts could therefore lead to a more general definition of adequate levels of detail in flood risk assessments.