From climate predictions to flood risk assessment for a portfolio of structures

Hydro-meteorological or climate-related hazards, such as storms, droughts, floods and landslides, transform into natural disasters when they hit vulnerable areas. In the last decades, climate-related disasters alone accounted for between 70-90 percent of the natural disasters around the globe (Hoyois and Guha-Sapir, 2012). On the other hand, the rapid rate of urbanization leads to an increase the exposure to risk in urban areas. It is sufficient to highlight that around half of the world’s population lives in urban areas at present; by 2050, this ratio is estimated to rise up to around 70% (UN-HABITAT, 2010). There is increasing evidence in the favor of a correlation between the climate change and extreme weatherrelated phenomena (Khan and Kelman, 2011). In this regard, assessment and prediction of the adverse effects of climate change scenarios on the frequency and/or intensity of extreme weather-related events and delineation of the potentially vulnerable areas are important steps in an integrated climate change adaptation strategy.