Chapter 7: Consequences of floods

Risk can be assessed as a combination of the consequences of flooding for the community and the likelihood or probability of these consequences occurring. Understanding flood behaviour provides a basis for understanding the likelihood of exposure to flooding, as discussed in Chapter 6.

This chapter concentrates on understanding and assessing the relative consequences of flooding on the community. These consequences will depend on how exposed the community is to flood behaviour and how vulnerable the community is to flooding. The consequences of flooding on the community can be considered on the basis of a range of factors, including

These factors are discussed in Sections 7.1–7.5, with AIDR (2015) providing examples of the metrics that were developed to provide some understanding of the relative seriousness of these consequences. Relative consequences can be rated from insignificant through to catastrophic. This can be important for informing decisions about whether or not to manage risk and the priority of different management measures.