| Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) is frequently affected by floods, particularly, within the low-lying floodplains of Cambodia. Populations living in the Mekong River floodplain of Cambodia are vulnerable to flood disasters. It is thus necessary to identify flood vulnerability in flood-prone areas of the LMB to support decisions for flood management. This study identified flood hazard areas and flood vulnerability in LMB of Cambodian floodplain and developed Flood Vulnerability Indices (FVI). The flood vulnerability was defined in terms of amount of potential damages. The agricultural and house damages were considered to identify flood vulnerability indices, because both are major income and stocks in the area. The agricultural damage was defined as the function of flood water depth during the cultivation period and its duration. The maximum daily water depth and their duration for each grid were calculated and agricultural damages at each grid were calculated according to damage curves. The house damage was defined as the function of maximum flood water depth by relating with average year flood level. The calculated house damages were compared with the statistical data of house damages. The FVI were developed for agricultural, houses and total damages by normalizing the calculated values of damages. The flood vulnerability indices spatial distribution of risk area in average flood and flood vulnerability indices of gap rate between an extreme flood and average flood were developed. |
