Integrated Methodology for Urban Flood Risk Mapping at the Microscale in Ungauged Regions: A Case Study of Hurghada, Egypt

• Published in: Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2020-11, Vol.12 (21), p.3548
• Main Authors: Abdrabo, Karim I., Kantoush, Sameh A., Saber, Mohamed, Sumi, Tetsuya, Habiba, Omar M., Elleithy, Dina, Elboshy, Bahaa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytic hierarchy process; Building materials; city strategic plans; Construction materials; Decision analysis; Decision making; Disaster management; Disaster risk; Emergency preparedness; Environmental risk; Flood management; Flood mapping; flood risk mapping; Floods; Geographic information systems; GIS; Land use; Mapping; Methodology; microscale; Multiple criterion; Population; Population density; Rainfall; Rainfall-runoff relationships; Remote sensing; Risk management; Runoff; Spatial discrimination; spatial planning; Spatial resolution; Storm damage; Suburban areas; System effectiveness; Two dimensional models; ungauged regions; Urban areas; Urban planning
• ISSN: 2072-4292; 2072-4292
• DOI: 10.3390/rs12213548

Flood risk mapping forms the basis for disaster risk management and the associated decision-making systems. The effectiveness of this process is highly dependent on the quality of the input data of both hazard and vulnerability maps and the method utilized. On the one hand, for higher-quality hazard maps, the use of 2D models is generally suggested. However, in ungauged regions, such usage becomes a difficult task, especially at the microscale. On the other hand, vulnerability mapping at the microscale suffers limitations as a result of the failure to consider vulnerability components, the low spatial resolution of the input data, and the omission of urban planning aspects that have crucial impacts on the resulting quality. This paper aims to enhance the quality of both hazard and vulnerability maps at the urban microscale in ungauged regions. The proposed methodology integrates remote sensing data and high-quality city strategic plans (CSPs) using geographic information systems (GISs), a 2D rainfall-runoff-inundation (RRI) simulation model, and multicriteria decision-making analysis (MCDA, i.e., the analytic hierarchy process (AHP)). This method was implemented in Hurghada, Egypt, which from 1996 to 2019 was prone to several urban flood events. Current and future physical, social, and economic vulnerability maps were produced based on seven indicators (land use, building height, building conditions, building materials, total population, population density, and land value). The total vulnerability maps were combined with the hazard maps based on the Kron equation for three different return periods (REPs) 50, 10, and 5 years to create the corresponding flood risk maps. In general, this integrated methodology proved to be an economical tool to overcome the scarcity of data, to fill the gap between urban planning and flood risk management (FRM), and to produce comprehensive and high-quality flood risk maps that aid decision-making systems.