URBAN STORMWATER RESILIENCE ANALYSIS USING GIS MAPPING AND DEVELOPMENT OF MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Urban floods continue to be one of the most disturbing natural hazards that have the potential to impact populations and lead to severe economic and other losses. Urbanisation and climate change impacted precipitation patterns have become a primary challenge to the drainage infrastructure due to their adverse impacts leading to frequent flooding of urban areas. Recurring instances of urban flooding are on the rise everywhere in the world, and unrestrained urban sprawl continues to be the key anthropological cause of the same in many cities. Several Indian cities suffer from urban floods every year, and if left unchecked, the losses incurred will continue to escalate at a faster rate. The country’s economic development and water security have been gravely impacted by growing competition over finite and unevenly distributed water resources in addition to climate change. A good portion of the annual precipitation falls in a few numbered days, making floods and droughts more severe in intensity. Flood management strategies are required to be formulated to bring about the initial identification of flood susceptible locations, thus facilitating swift recovery measures and diminishing the impact of any flood event. Flood mapping is an efficacious method to determine the areas vulnerable to floods and establish the flood-triggering factors. The flood hazard maps developed play a crucial role in decision-making concerning land-use planning and flood emergency management measures. These maps can also spread public awareness, specifically among the local population, who can support the land-use planners and the Government in general to mitigate urban floods. The importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in flood hazard zoning has been reinstated time and again, and its integration with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method has proven to be an even more dependable way for flood hazard assessment studies, particularly in areas with scarce or obsolete data.