Flood Control Benefits Revisited

Abstract

This paper provides a brief description of the most common method of calculating urban flood damages‐prevented benefits and critically appraises the data, assumptions, and techniques that may lead to erroneous estimates of benefits. Several issues were identified that, to the writer's knowledge, are not typically addressed in studies: (1) Bias resulting from inaccurate estimates of structure elevations; (2) failure to consider that unemployed labor may be used to repair flood damages; (3) failure to consider replacement of existing structures; and (4) underestimation of willingness to pay for repairs. With a better understanding of the weaknesses of current techniques, future research and data gathering can be directed to yield the greatest increase in overall accuracy.