Mapping the vulnerability of cultural heritage to the flood hazard in the Fluva river basin (Catalonia)

The paper attempts to undertake a vulnerability analysis to flooding of the elements of cultural heritage present in the Fluvia River basin and some of its tributaries in Girona (Spain). Elements of the cultural heritage include architectural, archeological, industrial and artistic artifacts located within the flood-prone areas of this river. We have catalogued a total of 389 elements of such characteristics, ranging from houses, factories and religious monuments to archeological sites, hydraulic works and fountains. Information on each element has been incorporated within a Geographical Information System associated to a database that includes all relevant variables for the estimation of vulnerability. Purposely, our approach to the estimation of the vulnerability to flooding does not assume that vulnerability is simply a function of physical exposure. Hence the need of developing alternative methodologies that take into account both physical exposure (i.e. the location of the element within the return periods of 10, 100, or 500 years) and what we define as "intrinsic vulnerability" or the characteristics of the element itself that may make this element more prone to degradation, independently of its exposure to flooding. Among these characteristics, we have considered the state of conservation of the element; the existence or not of investments addressed to improve this state; the type of property and the legal protection. Our working hypothesis is that damages from flooding can be very different depending on the intrinsic vulnerability of each element. Thus, elements may not be vulnerable to flooding even when they may be located in areas highly exposed to this risk. Conversely, elements that do not appear as highly exposed may be more vulnerable because of their intrinsic characteristics.