Hydrologic Engineering Center - Flood Impact Analysis (HEC-FIA)

Purpose: Analyze the damage and loss of life from a single flood event.
Developer: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydrologic Engineering Center (USACE HEC)
Key Features: Simplified loss of life calculations.
Latest Release: Version 3.0, 2015
OS Platform: Windows
Cost: Free
Related Software: KALYPSO
Website: HEC-FIA home page

Introduction

The HEC-FIA model successor to HEC-PBA, estimates damages and loss of life resulting from flood events. The model inputs geospatial datasets of agriculture fields and building structures, and assigns each structure a dollar value and a population. Using geospatial flood depth grids in concert with depth-damage discharge tables for buildings and depth, time and damage tables for agriculture, HEC-FIA can estimate potential direct and indirect economic losses, agricultural losses, and loss of life for each flood hazard. HEC-FIA can also be applied to estimate direct and indirect economic losses, including the effects on the economy, and the loss of life from dam or levee failure scenarios.

Key features of the HEC-FIA model include the ability to estimate loss of life and damages to agriculture and structures, and the ability to display flooded areas.

Advantages and Limitations

Advantages Limitations
  • Analyze various alternatives.
  • Accounts for agricultural damages and loss of life.
  • Simplified mobilization program.
  • Analyze single flood event or various
  • Analysis of flood impacts in real time
  • Developed user manual
  • Program can account for uncertainty
  • Model code not available
  • No support provided for non-USACE users
  • Software is released in a provisional format
  • Requires experts from a broad range of disciplines to account for uncertainty
  • Limited loss of life, evacuation routes ability
  • Economic job loss is related to the US
  • No technical manual provided
  • Number of published articles is limited

Illustrative Screens

Sample Applications

Africa East Asia and the Pacific Europe & Central Asia Latin America & the Caribbean Middle East and North Africa South Asia
Turkey (Flood Risk- Dams)

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