Abstract
This study aimed to examine flood hazard zoning and assess the role of check dams as effective hydraulic structures in reducing flood hazards. To this end, factors associated with topographic, hydrologic and human characteristics were used to develop indices for flood mapping and assessment. These indices and their components were weighed for flood hazard zoning using two methods: (i) a multi-criterion decision-making model in fuzzy logic and (ii) entropy weight. After preparing the flood hazard map by using the above indices and methods, the characteristics of the change‐point were used to assess the role of the check dams in reducing flood risk. The method was used in the Ilanlu catchment, located in the northwest of Hamadan province, Iran, where it is prone to frequent flood events. The results showed that the area of ‘very low’, ‘low’ and ‘moderate’ flood hazard zones increased from about 2.2% to 7.3%, 8.6% to 19.6% and 22.7% to 31.2% after the construction of check dams, respectively. Moreover, the area of ‘high’ and ‘very high’ flood hazard zones decreased from 39.8% to 29.6%, and 26.7% to 12.2%, respectively.
Highlights
As the most destructive natural disaster across the world, flood constitute about onethird of the global geophysical hazards (Smith and Ward 1998; Novelo-Casanova and Rodrıguez-Vangort 2016; Matheswaran et al 2019)
Given the lack of data on the storage capacity of check dams, the height of the check dams, which is directly related to their capacity, was used as an indicator for flood resistance
Regarding the role of check dams in reducing flood hazard, Eq (2), which is the inverse of Eq (1), was used to calculate the fuzzy scores
Summary
As the most destructive natural disaster across the world, flood constitute about onethird of the global geophysical hazards (Smith and Ward 1998; Novelo-Casanova and Rodrıguez-Vangort 2016; Matheswaran et al 2019). The floods have been taken into account as the cause for loss of life and financial damage. This phenomenon can be managed and mitigated with a range of appropriate strategies (Gan et al 2018; Sepehri et al 2018). Flood hazard mapping is not a measure on its own Department of Watershed Management, Faculty of ß 2019 The Author(s).
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