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Investigating flood susceptibility and vulnerability through geospatial techniques in Kerala State, India

A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry. Flooding is a complex phenomenon caused by various meteorological, hydrological, geomorphological, and anthropogenic factors. Flood susceptibility identifies the most vulnerable areas that are flood prone based on the region's...

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Main Author: George, Mohan Navya
Other Authors: Odera, Patroba
Format: Thesis
Language:Eng
Published: School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics 2024
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access_status_str Open Access
author George, Mohan Navya
author2 Odera, Patroba
author_browse George, Mohan Navya
Odera, Patroba
author_facet Odera, Patroba
George, Mohan Navya
author_sort George, Mohan Navya
collection Thesis
description A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry. Flooding is a complex phenomenon caused by various meteorological, hydrological, geomorphological, and anthropogenic factors. Flood susceptibility identifies the most vulnerable areas that are flood prone based on the region's physical features. Flood vulnerability is the degree to which people or man-made structures are affected by, or unable to cope with the effects of flooding. One of the key factors in risk management and flood damage assessment is determining flood vulnerability. There has been an increased need to understand floods as they are recurring more frequently. The objectives of this study were to determine the land use/cover changes in Kerala State over the last 45 years, model flood susceptibility for the years 1973, 2001 and 2018 and finally determine flood vulnerability in Kerala for the year 2018. These objectives were achieved through Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. Image classification of Landsat images helped identify the change in land use/cover. The flood susceptibility model was attained by processing the physical characteristics and using the multi-criteria weighted analysis. The flood vulnerability model was achieved by processing the copying, social, infrastructure and physical vulnerability. Again, multi-criteria weighted analysis was used. Results show that in the year 2018, 50.31 % of the area had a medium flood susceptibility and 28.74% of the area had a high susceptibility. The areas of high flood susceptibility and medium flood susceptibility are visually seen to be around the high concentration of built-up area. The high susceptibility regions have only increased since 1973 as the built-up area increased. Regarding flood vulnerability, most of the State (60.59%) had a medium flood vulnerability in 2018, followed by high vulnerability areas taking up 28.48% of the land. The high vulnerability areas are found along the west coast of the State. This study brings awareness that the flood susceptibility regions are increasing year by year and that the State has areas that are highly prone to flood vulnerability. The driving factors behind the increase in flood susceptibility and high flood prone areas are the increase in rainfall, population and the built environment.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language Eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:26.520Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
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publisher School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics
publisherStr School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39525 Investigating flood susceptibility and vulnerability through geospatial techniques in Kerala State, India George, Mohan Navya Odera, Patroba Engineering A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry. Flooding is a complex phenomenon caused by various meteorological, hydrological, geomorphological, and anthropogenic factors. Flood susceptibility identifies the most vulnerable areas that are flood prone based on the region's physical features. Flood vulnerability is the degree to which people or man-made structures are affected by, or unable to cope with the effects of flooding. One of the key factors in risk management and flood damage assessment is determining flood vulnerability. There has been an increased need to understand floods as they are recurring more frequently. The objectives of this study were to determine the land use/cover changes in Kerala State over the last 45 years, model flood susceptibility for the years 1973, 2001 and 2018 and finally determine flood vulnerability in Kerala for the year 2018. These objectives were achieved through Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. Image classification of Landsat images helped identify the change in land use/cover. The flood susceptibility model was attained by processing the physical characteristics and using the multi-criteria weighted analysis. The flood vulnerability model was achieved by processing the copying, social, infrastructure and physical vulnerability. Again, multi-criteria weighted analysis was used. Results show that in the year 2018, 50.31 % of the area had a medium flood susceptibility and 28.74% of the area had a high susceptibility. The areas of high flood susceptibility and medium flood susceptibility are visually seen to be around the high concentration of built-up area. The high susceptibility regions have only increased since 1973 as the built-up area increased. Regarding flood vulnerability, most of the State (60.59%) had a medium flood vulnerability in 2018, followed by high vulnerability areas taking up 28.48% of the land. The high vulnerability areas are found along the west coast of the State. This study brings awareness that the flood susceptibility regions are increasing year by year and that the State has areas that are highly prone to flood vulnerability. The driving factors behind the increase in flood susceptibility and high flood prone areas are the increase in rainfall, population and the built environment. 2024-04-30T13:06:03Z 2024-04-30T13:06:03Z 2023 2024-04-19T13:20:37Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39525 Eng application/pdf School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
spellingShingle Engineering
George, Mohan Navya
Investigating flood susceptibility and vulnerability through geospatial techniques in Kerala State, India
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Investigating flood susceptibility and vulnerability through geospatial techniques in Kerala State, India
title_full Investigating flood susceptibility and vulnerability through geospatial techniques in Kerala State, India
title_fullStr Investigating flood susceptibility and vulnerability through geospatial techniques in Kerala State, India
title_full_unstemmed Investigating flood susceptibility and vulnerability through geospatial techniques in Kerala State, India
title_short Investigating flood susceptibility and vulnerability through geospatial techniques in Kerala State, India
title_sort investigating flood susceptibility and vulnerability through geospatial techniques in kerala state india
topic Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39525
work_keys_str_mv AT georgemohannavya investigatingfloodsusceptibilityandvulnerabilitythroughgeospatialtechniquesinkeralastateindia