Abstract: In order to assess flood losses and take appropriate measures for disaster prevention and mitigation, we adopted principal component analysis to comprehensively assess the factors affecting flood loss. Several cities of Anhui Province subjected to flood disasters in Huaihe river basin are selected as typical examples and flood data in 2007 is taken as a case study. On the basis of flood disaster theory, we select seven flood loss factors from three aspects: disaster-causing factor, disaster environment factor and vulnerability factor, and establish the assessment index system. Results reveal that rainfall, economic development, population structure and flood protection standards have great impact on flood loss.

Key words: principal component analysis, flood loss, impact factor, disaster prevention and mitigation, flood risk assessment