Dynamic Assessment of Population Exposure to Urban Flooding Considering Building Characteristics

Shaonan Zhu, Xin Yang, Jiabao Yang, Jun Zhang (), Qiang Dai and Zhenzhen Liu
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Shaonan Zhu: School of Internet of Things, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210023, China
Xin Yang: State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Jiabao Yang: State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Jun Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Qiang Dai: State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Zhenzhen Liu: The State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: Under intensifying climate change impacts, accurate quantification of population exposure to urban flooding has become an imperative component of risk mitigation strategies, particularly when considering the dynamic nature of human mobility patterns. Previous assessments relying on neighborhood block-scale population estimates derived from conventional census data have been constrained by significant spatial aggregation errors. This study presents methodological advancements through the integration of social sensing data analytics, enabling unprecedented spatial resolution at the building scale while capturing real-time population dynamics. We developed an agent-based simulation framework that incorporates (1) building-based urban environment, (2) hydrodynamic flood modeling outputs, and (3) empirically grounded human mobility patterns derived from multi-source geospatial big data. The implemented model systematically evaluates transient population exposure through spatiotemporal superposition analysis of flood characteristics and human occupancy patterns across different urban functional zones in Lishui City, China. Firstly, multi-source points of interest (POIs) data are aggregated to acquire activated time of buildings, and an urban environment system at the building scale is constructed. Then, with population, buildings, and roads as the agents, and population behavior rules, activity time of buildings, and road accessibility as constraints, an agent-based model in an urban flood scenario is designed to dynamically simulate the distribution of population. Finally, the population dynamics of urban flood exposure under a flood scenario with a 50-year return is simulated. We found that the traditional exposure assessment method at the block scale significantly overestimated the exposure, which is four times of our results based on building scale. The proposed method enables a clearer portrayal of the disaster occurrence process at the urban local level. This work, for the first time, incorporates multi-source social sensing data and the triadic relationship between human activities, time, and space in the disaster process into flood exposure assessment. The outcomes of this study can contribute to estimate the susceptibility to urban flooding and formulate emergency response plans.

Keywords: agent-based modeling; population exposure; social sensing; POIs; urban flooding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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