Flood Hazard Mapping by Integrated GIS SCS Model

Natural hazards have existed since the dawn of civilization. With time, they have slowly changed into disasters where the main factor gearing the amplitude of their effects is the extent of urbanization within the critical regions of occurrence. Thus, with the development, these disasters have become the cause of socioeconomic losses. Amongst all, disasters of hydrometeorological origins are most frequent and seriously damaging nature. Small countries and islands suffer much from such events, because of the precocity of their economies and lack of appropriate infrastructure. Mauritius, given its geographic location and climate, is quite prone to such extreme events, even if floods are the most recurrent ones. The aim of this research study is to explore the possibility of the relevance of an adapted flood study model to the island, and how it could better help understanding the source of the problem. The integrated GIS SCS hydrological model is utilized to highlight the flooding problem in Mauritius. Flood sensitive zones were identified using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and flood hydrographs were derived for two catchments namely J and M. The research article further discusses how coupling of these two techniques could help to identify even the most critical flood prone areas within a subcatchment.