GIS-Based Spatial Mapping of Flash Flood Hazard in Makkah City, Saudi Arabia

Gomaa M. Dawod, Meraj N. Mirza, Khalid A. Al-Ghamdi

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DOI: 10.4236/jgis.2011.33019                

Abstract

Flash floods occur periodically in Makkah city, Saudi Arabia, due to several factors including its rugged to-pography and geological structures. Hence, precise assessment of floods becomes a more vital demand in development planning. A GIS-based methodology has been developed for quantifying and spatially mapping the flood characteristics. The core of this new approach is integrating several topographic, metrological, geological, and land use datasets in a GIS environment that utilizes the Curve Number (CN) method of flood modelling for ungauged arid catchments. Additionally, the computations of flood quantities, such as depth and volume of runoff, are performed in the attribute tables of GIS layers, in order to assemble all results in the same environment. The accomplished results show that the runoff depth in Makkah, using a 50-years re-turn period, range from 128.1 mm to 193.9 mm while the peak discharge vary from 1063 m³/s to 4489 m³/s. The total flood volume is expected to reach 172.97 million m³ over Makkah metropolitan area. The advan-tages of the developed methodology include precision, cost-effective, digital outputs, and its ability to be re-run in other conditions.

Keywords

Flood Assessment, Rainfall-Runoff Model, NRCS, GIS, Saudi Arabia

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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