Guideline for Atlas Flash Floods

Abstract

Society is exposed to flash floods even with advanced technologies in flood prediction or works of protection. People are vulnerable to upmost risks in the flash flood prone cities, where their growth to become megacities and economies is being nurtured by urbanization. Severe floods threaten human lives globally, damage property and infrastructure and inflict economic losses on nations. The location of Egypt in arid area makes it vulnerable to sudden storms. Due to the strong expansion, Egypt is witnessing construction sites, along with agricultural lands and industrial exploitation sites, which led to the colonization of the floodplains of valleys. This trend is expected to continue in future, thus this issue needs to be well managed and promptly addressed to reduce the encroachment of active valley deltas. This paper produces a guideline describing the flood risk in the form of the atlas to mitigate flash floods, and it directs decision-makers to engage in the several levels of the national and local organizations involved in managing disasters. It is expected to be beneficial to investors, practitioners and the public. Three key tools have been taken into account in these guidelines to describe the flash flood prone area: all data and information, data processing software (hydrological and hydraulic models), geographic information system (GIS) for graphic representation of maps and spatial analysis. The results produce sequence maps of risk and hazard levels for each Wadi.