A shows the distribution of emergy values for accumulated runoff, which represents exposure to flooding. The spatial pattern of exposure to flooding is highly influenced by the topographic characteristics of Taiwan’s western coastal plain. The administrative districts with higher emergy values of exposure are mainly situated in areas with lower elevation and adjacent to rivers, which accumulate more runoff from precipitation in the higher elevation areas. The intensity of exposure (Fig. 3B) for calculating potential impacts is derived as the ratio of exposure (runoff) to potential exposure (rainfall). The areas with higher intensity of exposure arealso located in areas with low-lying topography; the higher the