Identifying urban prone areas to flash floods: The case of Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Abstract

Floods are the natural hazard that causes the largest annual losses in the world Urban expansion and population growth have made cities the most hazardous areas, mainly due to poor planning, occupation of the drainage network and soil sealing. Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of the many cities worldwide threatened by this phenomenon. Its typically Mediterranean rainfall pattern, characterized by extreme precipitation events in short periods of time, together with its orography of steep ravines, short length and width, as well as its disorderly growth, make it a space prone to the occurrence of flash floods. In addition, the increase in torrential rainfall as a consequence of climate change and the tendency towards greater irregularity in precipitation is considerably intensifying the problem. This paper studies the characteristics of these episodes and the black spots inventoried in its General Management Plan (PGO for its initials in Spanish). On the other hand, flood modeling is carried out based on the rainfall characterization, whose maximum flows, in total, range between 500 and 1600 m3/s. Finally, a methodology that allows integrating both analyses to obtain a detailed hazard map is proposed as an alternative to the more traditional flood hazard analyses. A design storm of 288 mm is applied and the data is validated against the largest rainfall event on record, March 31, 2002. It has been shown that in an urban drainage network, the main watercourses and those that have disappeared due to urbanization represent areas susceptible to flooding and are the sectors that should be emphasized during the implementation of risk reduction measures. Finally, emphasis is placed on the need to integrate future climate projections of precipitation to better define the maximum flood flows.