Comment on "significance of "high probability/low damage" versus "low probability/high damage" flood events" by Merz et al. (2009)

Abstract

This comment is meant to shed some light on the use of so-called "risk aversion functions" in the management of flood risks and other natural hazards as recently proposed in this journal (Merz et al., 2009). In particular, I resume the discussion as to whether the relative damage is a suitable indicator of risk aversion and lay out why the use of this indicator may lead to inefficient decisions upon flood mitigation measures.