Flood damage curves: new insights from the 2010 flood in Veneto, Italy

Flood damage modelling is becoming an essential component in flood risk management. However damage assessments are affected by large uncertainty, mainly related to the use of depth–damage functions. In some countries, where no site-specific curves are available, a transfer of damage models developed from other areas is required, adding extra uncertainty in the modelling process. This paper discusses the transferability in space of damage curves from literature, with a focus on ‘function uncertainty’, pointing out, especially for mesoscale ones, the lack of detailed information in terms of flood and/or building characteristics that can allow to identify the conditions of applicability of the models. New site-specific depth–damage functions are then developed for the residential sector, at meso- and microscale, based on damage data from the 2010 flood in Veneto, Italy. The application of the new curves reveals a better performance of the mesoscale model compared with the more detailed microscale one, probably due to the small extent of the inundated area.