FDEM flood damage economic modelling

Using Geospatial Analytics and Data Science to undertake robust, auditable economic flood modelling at an individual asset level. The flood damage economic model (FDEM) is a tool Binnies has developed that has been used successfully used for several years for flood damage calculations. It uniquely bases all the calculations at property level, which means superior flexibility for assessing, visualising and understanding flood damages and identifying the beneficiaries of flood defence schemes.

Key features

The FDEM provides clear, concise visualisations so that all stakeholders can understand better the impact of flooding and the economic cost–benefit case.

Its automated analysis applies a standard, repeatable and auditable approach to every property, and, because it is fully scalable, FDEM delivers benefits on all types of projects. Investigations can be carried out from scheme level right up to regional level, all to the same level of accuracy and all based on individual property impacts. FDEM’s scalability and data granularity enable any boundaries to be used to provide reports, for example, a count of properties benefiting from a scheme or the combined damage value in an area.

FDEM delivers clear outcomes efficiently, which enables subject matter experts to spend longer devising and optimising solutions rather than undertaking analyses.

Every stage of the FDEM method is stored and referenced against the base spatial data. This means that every stage of the process can be visualised to real-world data. All inputs, calculations and results are stored against an individual property, as opposed to a flood cell or study area. The economics process no longer takes place in Excel sheets and Access databases with numbers representing properties.

Binnies’ pioneering data driven approach to flood economic assessment produces results that are more accurate, scalable, quicker and more cost-effective than traditional techniques. Information is presented visually, thereby enabling the public to understand the impacts of flooding and business users to make informed decisions. The FDEM process often identifies more properties than other techniques, thereby maximising benefit–cost ratios. The inherent level of detail enables focus on individual properties, which is particularly useful for highlighting where it might be possible to seek funding contributions.

FDEM applications

• Initial assessments
• Business case development (strategic outline case, outline business case and full business case)
• Strategic environmental assessments (SEA)
• Flood risk assessments (FRA)
• Strategic flood risk management
• Utility area drainage plans.