Component Level Framework for Developing Storm Surge Damage Functions for Application in Catastrophe Models

Storm surge vulnerability functions have found widespread use in describing, assessing and modeling damage to buildings and their contents in the built environment from hurricane storm surge. Although several models with different levels of complexity are used to quantify the hazard component of storm surge, the fundamental link between the hazard and the associated loss to the built environment is not well addressed. Exacerbating this situation is the lack of granularity of the vulnerability functions currently being used in risk assessment. The aim of the present study is two-fold. Firstly, it is to summarize the state-of-the-art in the field of hurricane storm surge damage estimation by drawing on existing literature, empirical field damage surveys and reconnaissance reports from past hurricanes in the United States. The underlying assumptions and limitations associated with the existing vulnerability functions provided by United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and currently employed in the risk assessment package, Hazards United States (HAZUS-MH) are identified. Some of these include the lack of differentiated vulnerability functions by building attributes such as year of construction, foundation type and first floor elevation. Secondly, insights are provided on the betterment of the approach involving damage and loss estimation in the perspective of Catastrophe (CAT) modeling.