Flood Risk Vulnerability Detection based on the Developing Topographic Wetness Index Tool in Geographic Information System

Abstract

Finding vulnerability to flooding locations is a crucial part of sensible urban development and effective natural disaster management. Globally, there has been a noticeable rise in the frequency of floods in recent years, which affects human habitation and several economic sectors. This calls for the employment of various prevention measures, wherein the assessment of vulnerability to flooding is crucial. The main objective of the present study is to introduce the best procedure for the identification of flood risk vulnerability detection using geographical information systems techniques and decision-making, based on a comparative evaluation of various scenarios. In this context, The current study will develop a Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) tool for the detection of these risks which can deal with the stream orders, calculate the length of the valley, and then show the outputs by thematic maps. The procedure with the developed adaptive tool has been applied to identify Flood Risk Vulnerability in Erbil city and some surrounding areas. The results of this paper indicated the existence of different levels of the TWI, which were classified into five classes. The procedure of this study has an advantage over other traditional methods since it takes into account mainly statistics data that are linked to the TWI which can be easily customized in detecting risk Vulnerability.