Establishment of flood damage function models: A case study in the Bago River Basin, Myanmar

This paper derives flood damage function models based on the relationships between flood inundation parameters and damage-aggravating factors for two land use categories: residential and agricultural. This case study considers the Bago River Basin in Myanmar, which is frequently damaged by flooding. A survey was conducted to determine the economic damage to affected populations and properties during a large flood in 2011. House damage, in-house damage, and income loss function models were established for residential areas, along with an agricultural damage function model. Flood water height, floor height from the ground, occurrence of landslide erosion and types of building materials could aggravate house damage, whereas in-house damage is exacerbated by flood water height above plinth level and types of house's plinth level. Income loss scales with flood duration, job category and household level. Flood water height, flood duration and the growth stage of paddies worsen agricultural damage. Knowing the relationship between flooding and its damaging factors, these models can be easily applied to a flood loss estimation model in further research.