ABSTRACT
Flooding
has been one of the recurring occurred natural disasters that induce
detrimental impacts on humans, property and environment. Frequent floods is a
severe issue and a complex natural phenomenon in Pakistan with respect to
population affected, environmental degradations, and socio-economic and
property damages. The Super Flood, which hit Sindh in 2010, has turned out to
be a wakeup call and has underlined the overwhelming challenge of natural
calamities, as 2010 flood and the preceding flood in 2011 caused a huge loss to
life, property and land use. These floods resulted in disruption of power,
telecommunication, and water utilities in many districts of Pakistan, including
22 districts of Sindh. These floods call for risk assessment and hazard mapping
of Lower Indus Basin flowing in the Sindh Province as such areas were also
inundated in 2010 flood, which were not flooded in the past in this manner.
This primary focus of this paper is the use of Multi-criteria Evaluation (MCE)
methods in integration with the Geographical Information System (GIS) for the
analysis of areas prone to flood. This research demonstrated how GIS tools can
be used to produce map of flood vulnerable areas using MCE techniques. Slope,
Aspect, Curvature, Soil, and Distance from Drainage, Land use, Precipitation,
Flow Direction, and Flow Accumulation are taken as the causative factors for
flooding in Lower Indus Basin. Analytical Hierarchy Process-AHP was used for
the calculation of weights of all these factors. Finally, a flood hazard Map of
Lower Indus Basin was generated which delineates the flood prone areas in the
Sindh province along Indus River Basin that could be inundated by potential
flooding in future. It is aimed that flood hazard mapping and risk assessment
using open source geographic information system can serve as a handy tool for
the development of land-use strategies so as to decrease the impact from
flooding.