Flood economics: a socio-economic analysis methodology
This document details the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) project framework and methodology for a socio-economic analysis of flood economics. The project was undertaken to gain a better understanding of the economic and financial imperatives for investment in flood mitigation and to create a business case for mitigation efforts.
The result is an interactive, online tool that highlights the benefits of flood mitigation investment. The target audience for this tool is a decision-maker at the community level, namely those who are involved in flood mitigation action and investment.
To address the need for an objective approach to understanding the benefits of flood mitigation actions, the EIU utilized data from existing sources and layered additional quantitative and qualitative insights. The core of the research program is the community case studies. These case studies are comprised of insights from existing flood loss avoidance studies and additional community impacts data and analysis.
In addition to the community case studies, the EIU undertook a broad analysis of projects and benefits data in the US from 1990 to 2015. The analysis covers a database of flood mitigation projects provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of 21,411 flood-specific projects, spanning all 50 states (plus Puerto Rico).
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