A scalable flood-resilience-index for measuring climate change adaptation: Munich city

Climate change is affecting the frequency and intensity of rainfall extreme events worldwide. Despite the growing global awareness, developing flood resilient cities has proven to be a major challenge. This paper investigates the application of an event-based scalable Flood Resilience Index (FRI) for assessing climate change adaptation. Flood resilience is represented by three dimensions: physical, social and economic. A household climate adaptation is adopted consisting of a combination of a flood-proof gate with an indoor tank and a submersible pump system implemented in all houses. The climate related impact under a high-emission scenario (RCP8.5) is analysed for Munich with the CRCM5 Large-Ensemble. Results show that for Munich extreme heavy rainfall events are increasing. The FRI can successfully identify households and districts which: a) are mostly affected by heavy rainfall, b) benefit the most from the climate adaptation, and c) are the most resilient. For the most severe future scenario investigated the climate adaptation measure was able to improve 57% of all affected buildings within Maxvorstadt to an FRI equal to 1.0 during the event and recovery phase. •We assess climate change adaptation (CCA) via a scalable Flood Resilience Index (FRI).•The FRI can identify the most resilient households and districts.•A household CCA consists of flood-proof gate with an indoor tank and pump system.•The CCA was able to improve 57% of all affected buildings to an FRI equal to 1.0.