Analysis of flash flood parameters and human impacts in the US from 2006 to 2012

• Published in: Journal of hydrology (Amsterdam) Vol. 519; pp. 863 - 870
• Main Authors: Špitalar, Maruša, Gourley, Jonathan J., Lutoff, Celine, Kirstetter, Pierre-Emmanuel, Brilly, Mitja, Carr, Nicholas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 27-11-2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Fatalities; Flash floods; Human impacts; Hydrology. Hydrogeology; Injuries; Statistical analysis; Human impacts; Fatalities; Flash floods; Statistical analysis; Injuries; floods; inundations; frequency; duration; drainage basins; natural disaster damages; statistical analysis; data bases; Natural hazards; rural areas; probability density function
• ISSN: 0022-1694; 1879-2707
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.07.004

•Fatality and injury events most common in rural, headwater catchments.•Shortest-duration events have the greatest impacts on humans.•Flood events become more fatal following sunset.•Limited visibility at night causes more flash flood fatalities.
Several different factors external to the natural hazard of flash flooding can contribute to the type and magnitude of their resulting damages. Human exposure, vulnerability, fatality and injury rates can be minimized by identifying and then mitigating the causative factors for human impacts. A database of flash flooding was used for statistical analysis of human impacts across the U.S. 21,549 flash flood events were analyzed during a 6-year period from October 2006 to 2012. Based on the information available in the database, physical parameters were introduced and then correlated to the reported human impacts. Probability density functions of the frequency of flash flood events and the PDF of occurrences weighted by the number of injuries and fatalities were used to describe the influence of each parameter.
The factors that emerged as the most influential on human impacts are short flood durations, small catchment sizes in rural areas, vehicles, and nocturnal events with low visibility. Analyzing and correlating a diverse range of parameters to human impacts give us important insights into what contributes to fatalities and injuries and further raises questions on how to manage them.