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Abstrakt

Flood hazard assessment of Vamanapuram River Basin, Kerala, India: An approach using Remote Sensing & GIS techniques

Ajin. R. S., R. R. Krishnamurthy, M. Jayaprakash and Vinod. P. G.

In recent years humans have endured increasing number of natural disasters, of which flood is the greatest and most common throughout the world. Flood plains are thickly populated because of their economic significance. The present study area, Vamanapuram River basin in Kerala State, India presents a challenge in terms of repeated flash flood hazard in some parts. The present study aims to prepare Flood hazard risk zone maps of Vamanapuram River basin based on multi criteria assessment using remote sensing and GIS tools. Present study is limited to factors such as rainfall distribution, drainage density, land use, soil type, size of micro watershed, slope, and roads per micro watershed, to prepare Flood hazard risk zone map. The thematic maps of these factors are prepared using ArcGIS and ERDAS Imagine tools. By giving ranks and weights to these thematic maps, the weightage maps are created. In this study Weighted Overlay Analysis method is adopted to prepare the Flood hazard risk zone map. The hazard map thus prepared will show the total areas subjected to the hazards, as very low, low, moderate, high and very high risk zones. By preparing the risk zone maps, we can propose measures to reduce the risk of these hazards in Vamanapuram River Basin.