Risk and vulnerability assessment of flood hazard in part of Ghaggar Basin: A case study of Guhla block, Kaithal, Haryana, India

The Ghaggar River in Haryana-Punjab plains, northern India presents a challenge in terms of repeated flash flood hazard. Although a long history of flood control management in the basin for more than 2 decades, the river continues to bring a lot of gloom through extensive flooding. This paper reconsiders the flooding problem in the Ghaggar River basin and presents an in-depth analysis of flood hydrology. We integrate the hydrological analysis with a Geographic Information System (GIS) based flood risk mapping in the middle parts of the basin. Typical hydrological and environmental characteristics of the study area include drainage congestion, drainage confluence, very high discharge variability, gentle slope, and agricultural practices. Besides, proximity to high slope of upper catchment area and disturbance of natural drainage channels due to human intervention, are identified main factors increasing vulnerability to flood hazard. Annual peak discharges often exceed the mean annual flood and the low-lying areas of the alluvial plains are extensively inundated year after year. The main objective of the study is to assess the risk and vulnerability based on multi-criteria assessment. In this study Rank Sum method is used to calculate the weights of factors contribute to flood hazard. Present study limited to environmental factors such as hydrology, slope, soil type, drainage density, landform and land use/land cover to propose a Flood Risk Index (FRI). GIS techniques shown efficient role in the process of derivation, integration, and analysis of spatial data. The approach resulted in three classes of flood risk mapping ranging between low to high vulnerable area. GIS produced flood risk map is validated with recent flood occurred in July 2010 inundation data collected from irrigation department of the concerned district. Present study find out that GIS based long-term inundation maps can offers a cost-effective solution for planning mitigation measures and preparedness in flood prone areas.