GIS-based Estimation of Flood Damage to Arable Crops / GIS-basierte Abschätzung von Hochwasserschäden landwirtschaftlicher Nutzpflanzen

Abstract

Floods are a serious risk, particularly in view of their climate change-induced increasing intensity and frequency. Hence, a further growth of flood consequences is to be expected. The reason is either, higher flood damage caused by the higher exposure or the rising effort to avoid and to mitigate the negative consequences. Damage and risk analysis often focus on the built environment because of its value dimension and its resulting high potential flood losses. In this context, damage to arable crops are rarely included and almost solely by rough estimates. The reason is the difficulties to assess appropriate values especially the seasonal and annual changes. To fill the gap, the paper presents a new approach for a detailed analysis of damage to arable crops considering the vulnerability of different crop types and the seasonal crop growth. It results in a wide range of applications including the use for the evaluation of compensation payments. In cooperation with the responsible authorities, this may be of particular interest for dike relocations and the flooding of flood polders.