Risk Flood Assessment for the Arachthos River using Analytic Hierarchy Process

Abstract

Floods are natural hazards with serious negative effects for the people, community, and economy. Advances in technology provide assessment and prediction of risk flooding, which is a complex problem dependent on many factors. Here, a risk flood assessment approach using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for the Arachthos River, Greece is presented. It is based on real-time data deriving from various sources such as meteorological stations and water level sensors. The proposed risk flood assessment system is based on seven factors: the sum of one day and three-day rainfall, the elevation, the land use, the slope, the water level, and the differential river height. It considers the catchment area of the Arachthos River as a focus area and produces a hazard assessment map based on AHP method. The hazard maps are useful for civil protection and local authorities, they provide visualized warning on possible catastrophic events, identify areas with a high-risk flood likelihood and they include useful information and increase the knowledge of local authorities and relevant stakeholders.