Flooding of Industrial Facilities - Vulnerability Reduction in Practice

• Main Authors: A. Vallee, C. Duval
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. 2012-05-01
• Series: Chemical Engineering Transactions
• Online Access: https://www.cetjournal.it/index.php/cet/article/view/7404

International databases such as OFDA / CRED show that floods accounted for more than half of disasters registered for the 1990-2001 period. With consequences of climate change largely unpredictable at local level, future statistics are not likely to show any improvement. As human activities historically developed in river areas and floodplains, industrial facilities are structurally exposed to flooding. Past events witnessed industrial vulnerability to flooding, including direct impact on structure, loss of safety measures, loss of utilities, business interruption, etc. In response of such natural-technological interaction, mitigation efforts have taken two main directions: land-use planning in flood-prone areas and vulnerability reduction in flood-prone facilities. This paper focuses on the former issue and presents a methodology for the mitigation of flood impacts on industrial facilities.