COSTS AND BENEFITS OF ECOSYSTEM-BASED ADAPTATION FOR FLOOD RISK REDUCTION IN FIJI

Adam Daigneault (), Pike Brown and David Gawith

No 169398, 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: This paper quantifies the economic impacts of flooding in the Ba River and Penang River catchments in Viti Levu, Fiji. We conducted a detailed assessment of flood damage stemming from two major flooding events in 2012 that severely affected the two important catchments, primarily by using evidence from a novel survey administered in early 2013. We combine these empirical measures of damage with GIS data to estimate total damages from flooding and find that the January 2012 flood caused FJ$36.4 and FJ$12.2 in damages for the Ba River and Penang River catchments, respectively, while the March 2012 flood caused FJ$24.1 and FJ$8.4 in damages for the Ba River and Penang River catchments, respectively. We then estimate the cost of future flooding under moderate and severe climate change projections. Flooding is projected to become more frequent and more severe under both scenarios, with annual losses increasing by 100% with moderate climate change and by 300% with severe climate change. For perspective, damages from a 1-in-50 year flood, which is the estimated return period of the January 2012 event, are projected to cause between FJ$76.5 and FJ$153 million in damages in the Ba River Catchment under these two scenarios.

Keywords: Community/Rural/Urban Development; Environmental Economics and Policy; Food Security and Poverty; International Development; Land Economics/Use; Risk and Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Related works:
Working Paper: Costs and Benefits of Ecosystem-based Adaptation for Flood Risk Reduction in Fiji (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea14:169398

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.169398

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