This investigation aims to address the shortcoming in knowledge of the financial impact which flooding has on individual households. It goes beyond the concept of Average Annual Damages which is the usual measure used to quantify flood damage where average costs spread over the long-term are derived, usually for economic comparison and analysis. However, these are not related in any way to a household's ability to pay, or to the time taken to recover from such a financial loss.

The report provides objective projections of the financial impact of flooding on a variety of typical owner-occupier household types in the Hawkesbury Nepean Floodplain region. These financial projections enable the estimation of the maximum endurable flood that each particular household type can suffer before experiencing severe financial hardship, which provides a measure of that household's vulnerability to flooding.

The assessment of the maximum endurable Hood in each case forms the basis of the conclusions in this report, which also take account of the effect of other variables (including loss of employment, savings and the timing of the flood).