Geospatial Analysis of Flood Occurrences in Selected Sub Wards of Morogoro Municipality - Tanzania

Abstract

Flood is characterized by an overflow of water than drainage capacity of what is normally a dry land. Urban flooding has become progressively recurring and deadly natural disaster across different cities in the world. Floods results to a lot of damages which vary from place to place. Therefore, in curbing flood and its effects, it is important to have information on flood occurrences at different geographical scales. In this study, geospatial tools have been used to analyze the flood occurrences of selected sub wards in Morogoro Municipality, between 2016 and 2021. It was found that 41.84% of all houses in the selected 56 sub wards assessed in Morogoro Municipality had experienced flooding within the 5 years. Some sub wards faced high flood occurrence as much as 91.8% of all houses in such sub wards: Gohalema were flooded while others like Mzigila sub ward received a minimal 5.26% flooding occurrence. To further describe the spatial distribution, maps of flooding occurrence, their distribution, intensity and ranges had been generated. Furthermore, flooding simulation of the study area at different elevations was conducted to see what areas would or would not be flooded. To conclude, the study had shown that there was flood occurrences in Morogoro municipality between 2016 and 2021, and further shown that, there was spatial relationship between flood Occurrence and elevation as well as drainage network. However, further studies on the factors that affect flood occurrences in the study area are recommended.