Vulnerability assessment of building material against river flood water: case study in Malaysia

Abstract

Flood risk is increasing in Malaysia specifically around river which influencing of climate change. The aim of this study is assessing the vulnerability of building materials by revealing the degree of loss for each structure. There are most five common materials has been assessing namely: brick, concrete block, steel wall panels, wooden wall and precast concrete framing. This research was conducted on 110 buildings, to record detailed attributes of each building in the city of Kuantan. Afterwards, the interviews were conducted with residents of 85 households along with a local authority staff expert. The lowest flood depth that effected on wall building was 25 cm and the highest depth of flood was recorded 150 cm. In general, the interview revealed that the flood lasted for 48 hours. The vulnerability of the structural type of building is determined from the percentages of damage to the wall material resulting from occurrence of the flood. Vulnerability curves were made for these five structural types, by plotting the relationships between flood depth and damage for each structural type. The result shows that by increasing the flood depth wood wall encounter by more damage, which needs more cost to repair. In other hand, Concrete block wall, which consider as one of the industrial building systems has less damage against floodwater. Although, until the depth of 75 cm both Concrete block wall and precast concrete has a same stability. The result of this research can help housemaker to choose the best material for building in flood zone area, which needs less cost in repair stage after flood hit the building.