Modern society considers essential to increase the safety of the infrastructure. Risk analysis is a helpful tool for the evaluation and management of risks which can affect people, environment and human development.The purpose of this paper is to present a tool for quantitative risk assessment that consists of estimating the consequences of failure of a dam near populated areas with complex demographics, infrastructure and economic activity.

The tool, named “FloodRisk”, is a plug-in for the open source software Quantum GIS and provides the assessment of flood consequences, in terms of loss of life and direct economic damages. The direct flood impact estimation for residential, commercial and industrial property is assessed using depth–damage curves, which describe the relationship between levels of inundation and damage incurred.

The estimate of loss of life is assessed by utilizing simple and parsimonious methods based on the contributing factors that could be generally available: hazard factors, such as water depth and water velocity, the general preparadness of the society, such as existence of public education on flood risk, warning and communication system, coordination between emergency agencies and authorities, time of day, and warning factors, such as warning time.

The aim of the proposed tool is to support decision making and policy development in the field of risk management.