Flood monitoring using GIS technologies: A case study of the Selenga River basin

Abstract

The article contains data on catastrophic floods on the rivers of Lake Baikal basin in the past century. It describes the functional structure of the GIS of flood monitoring. The study justifies the advantage of the basin approach in flood assessment and mapping. We determine the basic regional climatic and physico-geographical factors of flood formation and characterize the main indicators of the territory danger from floods: frequency, magnitude and extent of floods. As hydrological information, we used the calculated water levels in the sections obtained from annual probability distribution curves of exceeding the maximum water levels from rainfall floods. The flood indicator is calculated as the difference of the maximum rise in the water level above the critical level of water outflow to the floodplain. Calculation data show that the maximum values of water levels in the basin’s rivers are the most characteristic of the summer flood period. We have determined physico-geographical features of flood distribution on the main rivers of the study area, performed geoinformation mapping of flood parameters within the main river basins and described the technique of interactive work with GIS through geoinformation queries as well as characterized the response models of the hazard development.