Storm flood risk zoning in the typical regions of Asia using GIS technology

Abstract

According to the basic principles of flood risk, risk of storm hazard, stability of disaster environment and vulnerabilities of hazard-affected bodies, we used South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia as the study area and comprehensively considered major indicators, including the rainfall, topography, land use, vegetation, river network density, population and economic strength, to perform a disaster impact evaluation. The above-mentioned factors were normalized to obtain standardized multi-source raster data using the geographic information system (GIS) software package. The weights of relevant indicators were determined according to analytic hierarchy processes, and a model to perform comprehensive risk assessment of flood was constructed. We used GIS to obtain an assessment map of the flood comprehensive risk levels of typical Asian areas. With the help of the comprehensive analysis, genesis and mitigation service principles and assessment map of the flood comprehensive risk levels, both qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed on the study region. Finally, the study area was divided into six sub-regions, the northwestern, southwestern, southern, and central districts, eastern plains, and southeastern coastal areas. Among these districts, the eastern plains and southeastern coastal areas had the highest risk, followed by the southern district. Meanwhile, the southwestern district had lower values, and the northwestern and central districts exhibited the lowest risk. The results from this research have significant reference values regarding macro-policy decisions on the prevention of flood disasters in the South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia.