CLIMRISK-RIVER: Accounting for local river flood risk in estimating the economic cost of climate change

This study aims to improve the estimates of the economic impacts of climate change by developing a river flood
risk model CLIMRISK-RIVER and introducing it into an existing climate-economy integrated assessment model
(IAM). It operates on a local scale and can project climate change-related river flood damage for various socioeconomic,
climate and flood adaptation scenarios. Whereas other IAMs have relied on temperature as a
climate change proxy, we show that precipitation is a key variable in projecting river flood damage. The way
adaptation is accounted for in our flood damage functions has a large influence on the results, highlighting the
relevance of modelling local level adaptation in IAMs. Results presented at different spatial scales demonstrate
the relevance of river flood damage functions for estimating the economic impacts of climate change and allows
for exploration of the spatial distribution of impacts through local estimates.