Flood Hazard Mapping Using Fuzzy Logic, Analytical Hierarchy Process, and Multi-Source Geospatial Datasets

Sahel Mahdavi,Arsalan Ghorbanian,Armin Moghimi,Meisam Amani,Saeid Parsian

doi:10.3390/rs13234761

Sahel Mahdavi, Arsalan Ghorbanian + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13234761

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Abstract

Iran is among the driest countries in the world, where many natural hazards, such as floods, frequently occur. This study introduces a straightforward flood hazard assessment approach using remote sensing datasets and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) environment in an area located in the western part of Iran. Multiple GIS and remote sensing datasets, including Digital Elevation Model (DEM), slope, rainfall, distance from the main rivers, Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) maps, soil type map, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and erosion rate were initially produced. Then, all datasets were converted into fuzzy values using a linear fuzzy membership function. Subsequently, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique was applied to determine the weight of each dataset, and the relevant weight values were then multiplied to fuzzy values. Finally, all the processed parameters were integrated using a fuzzy analysis to produce the flood hazard map with five classes of susceptible zones. The bi-temporal Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, acquired before and on the day of the flood event, were used to evaluate the accuracy of the produced flood hazard map. The results indicated that 95.16% of the actual flooded areas were classified as very high and high flood hazard classes, demonstrating the high potential of this approach for flood hazard mapping.

Highlights

IntroductionNatural hazards frequently cause a variety of physical (e.g., injuries, casualties, and property damages) and non-physical (e.g., psychological and mental) disturbances worldwide [1]
Natural hazards frequently cause a variety of physical and non-physical disturbances worldwide [1]
The final fuzzy map was classified into five different classes by natural breaks classification (Jenks) to provide an explicit flood hazard map

Summary

Introduction

Natural hazards frequently cause a variety of physical (e.g., injuries, casualties, and property damages) and non-physical (e.g., psychological and mental) disturbances worldwide [1]. The number of disastrous events has dramatically increased in recent decades, and the number of casualties/injuries, economic losses, and intense environmental disturbances [2,3]. As the most frequent natural hazard, is not an exception, and over the last few decades, it has caused considerable negative environmental and socioeconomic damages in different parts of the world [4,5,6,7,8]. Flood events negatively affected more than 232,896 people and caused over 295 million USD damages in Morocco between 1995 and 2005 [11].

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