Spatiotemporal aspects of flood exposure in Switzerland

• Main Authors: Röthlisberger Veronika, Zischg Andreas, Keiler Margreth
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2016-01-01
• Series: E3S Web of Conferences
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20160708008

While flood hazard mapping in Switzerland is close to completion, only a limited number of studies have been specifically conducted on exposure and vulnerability. We fill this knowledge gap by conducting a nation-wide study of flood exposure of buildings in Switzerland. Therefore, we generate a country-wide comprehensive and homogenous data set of polygons of residential buildings and their period of construction and overlay these building polygons with compiled and harmonized flood hazard maps provided by the Swiss cantons. In this paper we present first results of spatiotemporal analyses, namely the evolution of exposure from 1919 to 2012. Surprising is the increase in the share of exposure of new constructed buildings since the 1980s which contradicts the indented effects of the Swiss flood risk management strategies and calls for further investigations.