GIS-Based Climate Change Induced Flood Risk Mapping in Uhunmwonde Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria

Introduction: Flood is one of the climate change induced hazards occurring in most parts of the world. It exposes humanity and many socio-ecological systems to various levels of risks. In Nigeria, extreme rainfall events and poor drainage system have caused inundation of several settlements to flooding. To contain the disaster, risk mapping were among the measures recommended. Aims: The aim of this paper is to highlight flood risk zones (FRZ) in Uhunmwonde Local Government Area (LGA), Edo State, Nigeria. Methodology: Flood risk (FR) was mapped using hazards and vulnerability and implemented using geographic information system (GIS)-based multi-criteria analysis analytic hierarchy process (MCA-AHP) framework by incorporating seven environmental and two socio-economic factors. Elevation, flow accumulation, soil water index of wettest quarter, normalized difference vegetation index, rainfall of wettest quarter, runoff of wettest quarter and distance from rivers constituted the hazard component while population density and area of agricultural land use was the vulnerability layer. The climate change induced flood risk was validated using the responses of 150 residents in high, moderate and low flood risk zones. Results: The resulting flood risk map indicated that about 40.4% of Uhunmwonde LGA fell within high flood risk zone, 35.3% was categorized under moderate flood risk zone whereas low flood risk zone extended up to about 24.3% of the LGA. The high number of respondents who reported occurrence of flooding with frequency being very often and the fact that flooding was a very serious environmental threat during on-the-spot field assessment validated the generated climate change induced flood risk. Conclusion: The utilitarian capabilities of GIS-based MCA-AHP framework in integrating remotely-sensed biophysical and climate change related flood inducing indicators with socio-economic vulnerabilities to arrive at composite flood risk was demonstrated.

Flood Risk Modeling of Urbanized Estuarine Areas under Uncertainty: A Case Study for Whitesands, UK.

Aims: The impacts of catastrophic flooding have steadily increased over the last few decades. This work investigated the effectiveness of flood modeling, with low dimensionality models along with a wealth of soft (qualitative) and hard (quantitative) data. In the presence of very low resolution or qualitative data this approach has the potential of assessing a plethora of different scenarios with little computational cost, without compromise in prediction accuracy. Study Design: A flood risk modeling approach was implemented for the urbanized and flood prone region of Whitesands, at the Scottish town of Dumfries. This involved collection of a wide range of data: a) topographical maps and data from field visits were used to complement existing crosssectional data, for building the river’s geometry, b) appropriate hydrological data were employed to run the simulations, while historical information about the extent, depth and impacts of flooding were utilized for calibrating the hydraulic model, and c) a wealth of photographic data obtained during the most recent December 2013 flood, were used for the model’s validation. Place and Duration of Study: Desk study: School of Engineering, University of Glasgow; September 2013 to May 2014. Field study: Dumfries; November 2013 to January 2014. Methodology: The HEC-RAS 1D model has been used to represent the hydraulics of the system. Flood maps were produced considering the local topography and predicted inundation depths. Flood cost and risk takes further into account the type and value of inundated property as well as the extent and depth of flooding. Results: The model predictions (inundation depths and flood extents presented in the flood maps) were in fairly good agreement with the observed results along the studied section of the river. Conclusion: This study presented a flood modeling approach that utilized an appropriate range of accessible data in the absence of detailed information. As the level of performance was comparable to other inundation models the results can be used for identification of flood mitigation measures and to inform best management strategies for waterways and floodplains.

Open Data Flood Mapping of Chao Phraya River Basin and Bangkok Metropolitan Region.

Aims: To examine the utility of open data for flood mapping of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region and Chao Phraya River basin. The region is particularly vulnerable to flooding, having experienced recurrent major flooding events, including the some of the most extensive and prolonged in 2011. Study Design: Novel methodologies were innovated utilising open spatial data and open source geographical software to generate flood extent/hazard maps of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region and Chao Phraya River basin. Key geospatial data were sourced from the Thai Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency and NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Methodology: Given limited resources for conducting detailed hydrological-hydraulic analyses, two alternative approaches were examined for flood extent/hazard mapping of the basin and city. The first method made use of publicly available historical flood data to produce an up-to-date composite flood extent/hazard map. The second approach, using the latter output as a reference source, examined the utility of a modified topographic index for delineating flood-prone areas, as integrated into the r.hazard.flood module of the open source GRASS GIS application. Results: Compilation of multi-year historical data enabled generation of a relatively finescale (~100m spatial resolution) flood extent/hazard map for the basin and city. The optimal tau threshold for delineating flood exposed cells from the modified topographic index was linearly related to the sub-basin mean slope. The four most northerly subbasins of the Chao Phraya basin, those with higher mean slopes, gave lowest total errors, ranging from 17.5 to 35.9 percent. Conclusions: Open data in the form of multi-year spatial flood layers were effectively combined to generate a relatively fine-scale flood extent/hazard map for the Chao Phraya River basin and Bangkok Metropolitan Region, and the modified topographic index showed promise as an alternative means for identifying flood exposed areas.