Geospatial Mapping of Inland Flood Susceptibility Based on Multi-Criteria Analysis – A Case Study in the Final Flow of Busu River Basin, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Floods are one of the most extensively dispersed risks all over the world. The aim of this research is to map out potential flood susceptible zones and analyse the risk using integrated Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) Technology. RS techniques present inexpensive and quicker decisions for retrieving spatial data about the flood occurrence in the actually unreachable areas. On the other hand, GIS techniques enable hydrological demonstrations in data gathering, examination, querying, and demonstration of information in a further easy layout. This research focused on the flooding problem in the Busu River basin and demonstrated a detailed geospatial mapping of inland flood susceptibility based on Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) approaches like Pairwise comparison, ranking and weight, and Boolean logic. Different flood factors namely slope, elevation, flow accumulation, soil drainage, soil texture, surface runoff, distance to the active channel, land use land cover, and lithological characteristics were considered for the flood hazard assessment in the lower catchment of the Busu River. Storm rainfall data were used to calculate surface runoff, while the population layer was used for flood vulnerability analysis by overlaying them on the flood hazard map. These flood susceptibility maps especially from Pairwise comparison and ranking approaches can be used for flood mitigation and flood hazard preparedness, as they are more accurate than the Boolean logic approach.