Multiple natural disasters are becoming ever more frequent around the world, with both climate change and rapid urbanization increasing the risk of such disasters in human society. Comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of multiple disasters on the industrial and economic system has become an urgent and essential part of urban recovery and sustainable development. However, there is a lack of studies that focus on assessing the indirect economic impacts resulting from such multiple events, and thereafter providing a common quantitative approach within their assessment. With the concept of flood footprint and input-output theory, this study proposes a more externally oriented methodology (flood footprint model) for indirect flood footprint (IFF) accounting and offers various extensive sensitivity analyses based on a hypothetical two-flood event. Based on the two-flood case, we conclude that the total flood footprint of a multi-flood within a given region is larger than the sum of individual flood footprints and this is the same for the IFF due to the combination effect, while the flood footprint is highly constrained by factors such as occurrence time and physical damage caused by the ensuing disaster. This article is part of the theme issue 'Urban flood resilience'.
Keywords: compound flood events; flood footprint assessment; indirect economic impact accounting; multiple natural disasters; post-flood economic recovery.