A qualitative approach for identifying areas prone to urban floods with the support of LiDAR

Abstract

AbstarctIn urban areas, the land surface is often covered with impervious layers increasing the potential for storm water flooding. Thus, runoff water management during intensive rain events has become an important issue to be tackled in fast-growing cities with increasingly large populations. This paper presents a LiDAR-aided qualitative methodology for defining areas prone to urban floods on a regional scale at the early phases of land use planning. The developed methodology is based on different datasets describing water infiltration capacity of the ground and tested in the city of Vantaa, Finland. The methodology utilizes datasets that are freely and easily available. The selected factors for analysis are soil permeability, soil sealing and surface topography. The presented approach gives tools for the preliminary identification of areas prone to storm water flooding. The developed analysis is user-friendly and quick to perform. It is a qualitative method that can support land use planners and other municipal and regional actors in the environmental and technical sectors in early-phase storm water flood management. The developed method is applicable for different planning scales.