Assessing Vulnerability to Floods of the Built Environment-Integrating Urban Networks and Buildings

The EU is very concerned by flood risk. The effects of floods on urban areas are substantial in terms of damage and economic loss. It is expected, taking into account climate change and urban growth, that this particular risk will be more frequent and will cause more and more damage; the built environment has become very vulnerable to floods. There is a need to develop methods and tools to assess urban vulnerability to floods. Indeed, some solutions are already available to assess vulnerability of buildings or infrastructure such as networks. But, the city is a complex system and not just a sum of its components. Our purpose is about developing techniques to assess the vulnerability of the city using a systematic approach and integrating existing tools which assess the vulnerability of particular components of the city system.