Are we preventing flood damage eco-efficiently? : An integrated method applied to post-disaster emergency actions
Petit Boix, Anna (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Arahuetes, Ana (Universitat d'Alacant. Institut Interuniversitari de Geografia)
Josa Garcia-Tornel, Alejandro (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament d'Enginyeria Civil i Ambiental)
Rieradevall, Joan (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Biològica i Ambiental)
Gabarrell Durany, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Biològica i Ambiental)

Date:	2016
Abstract:	Flood damage results in economic and environmental losses in the society, but flood prevention also entails an initial investment in infrastructure. This study presents an integrated eco-efficiency approach for assessing flood prevention and avoided damage. We focused on ephemeral streams in the Maresme region (Catalonia, Spain), which is an urbanized area affected by damaging torrential events. Our goal was to determine the feasibility of post-disaster emergency actions implemented after a major event through an integrated hydrologic, environmental and economic approach. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and costing (LCC) were used to determine the eco-efficiency of these actions, and their net impact and payback were calculated by integrating avoided flood damage. Results showed that the actions effectively reduced damage generation when compared to the registered water flows and rainfall intensities. The eco-efficiency of the emergency actions resulted in 1. 2 kg CO2 eq. per invested euro. When integrating the avoided damage into the initial investment, negative net impacts were obtained (e. g. , - 5. 2E + 05 € and - 2. 9E + 04 kg CO2 eq. per event), which suggests that these interventions contributed with environmental and economic benefits to the society. The economic investment was recovered in two years, whereas the design could be improved to reduce their environmental footprint, which is recovered in 25 years. Our method and results highlight the effects of integrating the environmental and economic consequences of decisions at an urban scale and might help the administration and insurance companies in the design of prevention plans and climate change adaptation.
Grants:	Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2014/SGR-1412 Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte FPU13/01273 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CSO2012/6997-CO2-02
Note:	Sostenipra
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Risk management ; Life cycle assessment ; Life cycle costing ; Damage prevention ; Climate change
Published in:	Science of the total environment, Vol. 580 (February 2017) , p. 873-881, ISSN 1879-1026

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.12.034

Post-print 31 p, 1.7 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles