An Integrated Approach for Urban Pluvial Flood Risk Assessment at Catchment Level

Abstract

With the rapid development of urbanization and global climate change, urban pluvial floods have occurred more frequently in urban areas. Despite of the increasing urban pluvial flood risk, there is still a lack of comprehensive understanding of the physical and social influencing factors on the process. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper proposes a novel approach to calculate the comprehensive urban pluvial flooding risk index (PFRI) and investigates the interplay impacts from different components at catchment level. To be more specific, PFRI is determined by two components, Exposure Index (EI) and Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI). EI is evaluated based on two indicators, the depression-based Topographic Control Index (TCI) and impervious area ratio. SoVI is measured based on a set of demographic and socio-economic indicators. Our results demonstrated the spatial heterogeneity of urban pluvial flood exposure and social vulnerability, as well as the composite flooding risk across the study area. Our catchment-based urban pluvial flooding risk assessment method can provide a comprehensive understanding of urban flooding and promote the formulation of effective flood mitigation strategies from the catchment perspective.

Resilient Urban Flood Management: A Multi-Objective Assessment of Mitigation Strategies

“…Additionally, flooding in an urban catchment can be dominated by runoff processes in a rural boundary catchment [23,24], especially if one or more streams are located in the urban catchments. Such rural boundary catchments are commonly large in contrast to urban catchments, and the runoff input from a rural boundary catchment can also be high.…”

“…The presented common knowledge about urban flood mitigation does not demonstrate a clear picture regarding the most efficient strategy against future challenges. The individual consideration of flooded areas (e.g., [24,45,52]) is not able to assess the integrated process of urban flooding holistically, as some crucial processes (e.g., runoff in the sewer system or changes in the urban water balance) are not taken into account. Therefore, a multi-objective assessment approach with more than one criterion is required [46].…”

Integrated assessment of flood risk in Arial Khan floodplain of Bangladesh under changing climate and socioeconomic conditions

“…Thus, though the dynamism of vulnerability was long recognized, future socioeconomic conditions were seldom accounted for. In this study, flood risk was assessed using an integrated approach, which focuses on both the physical and social aspects of the flood event as they are equally important (Adger, 2006; De Sherbinin, 2014; Gain et al, 2015; Qi et al, 2022; Rahman, 2006). The physical aspects include the flood attributes such as affected area, depth and duration, and the social aspects include the features of human life and property that face the harmful consequences due to the occurrence of the flood (de Moel et al, 2015; Huda et al, 2022).…”