Estimating urban flooding potential near the outlet of an arid catchment in Saudi Arabia

• Published in: Geomatics, natural hazards and risk natural hazards and risk, 2017-12, Vol.8 (2), p.672-688
• Main Authors: Al-Zahrani, Muhammad, Al-Areeq, Ahmed, Sharif, Hatim O.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aridity; Catchment area; Catchment areas; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulation; Data; Design storms; Digital Elevation Models; Digital mapping; Flood control; Flood mapping; Flood modelling; Flooding; Floods; Fluid flow; Geographic information systems; Geographical information systems; HEC-HMS; Hydraulic models; Hydraulics; Hydrologic data; hydrologic model; Hydrologic models; Hydrology; Information processing; Information systems; Land cover; Land use; Modelling; Post-production processing; Rain; Rainfall; Rainfall data; Remote sensing; Runoff; Runoff estimation; Soil; Soil conservation; Soil maps; Storms; Watersheds
• ISSN: 1947-5705; 1947-5713
• DOI: 10.1080/19475705.2016.1255668

The aim of this study is to build a flood simulation model for the city of Hafr Al-Batin catchment area. The model consists of a hydrologic model, a hydraulic model and pre- and post-processing tools. A geographic information system-based modelling interface was used to pre-process the terrain and rainfall data and generate input files for hydrologic and hydraulic models. Soil map data, land cover map, land use map and digital elevation model was used to delineate the physical watershed's characteristics. The runoff estimation was based on the widely known Soil Conservation Service curve number approach. The hydrologic/hydraulic model simulations simulated the runoff hydrograph corresponding to different design storms and helped to delineate the resulting flood inundation maps. The results indicate good agreement between the delineated inundation map and the hazard map developed by the municipality. They also show that the location of the city complicates the runoff response for small storms creating two distinct peaks. The results of this study can be utilized for planning purposes and in the design of flood control structures as the study has estimated the runoff corresponding to different design storms and used hydraulics and geospatial data in delineating the flood zones.