State of the Art of Hurricane Vulnerability Estimation Methods: A Review

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive review of methods to assess building vulnerability for hurricane catastrophe models. The review identified five main types of assessment approaches judging by the underlying methodology: past-loss data, enhanced damage data, heuristic, physics, and simulation. The applicability of past-loss data-only vulnerability methods proved insufficient for the diversity of situations insurance companies faced. Therefore, modelers complemented this method with engineering and meteorology expert knowledge; these are the enhanced-data models. Expert opinion and subjective probabilities drive the heuristic models; these were short lived in the United States, but are still used when data are scarce. Component-based methods were developed as a more realistic alternative to enhanced-data models by assessing vulnerability within an engineering framework complemented with expert opinion. Simulation models enhanced the physical models with a probabilistic simulation of the wind-structure interaction and more realistic assessment of the hazard. This paper also reviews some influential postdisaster studies utilized for validation. In addition, this paper presents a temporal and spatial map showing linkages between models. The development of interior damage models, as well as the future of vulnerability models and possible applications, is discussed.