Mapping and Assessment of Flood Risk Based on Vulnerability and Hazard Factors in Urban Areas Through the Integration of Multi-Criteria Techniques and Gis: A Case Study in Yakutiye, Erzurum, Türkiye

Abstract

Flood-related losses have prompted researchers to adopt comprehensive and scientific approaches to mitigate flood damages. Recently proposed multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are used to perform flood risk analysis more participatory, multi-dimensional, and efficient. This study focuses on the flood risk analysis of Yakutiye District in Erzurum, T & uuml;rkiye, employing a multifaceted approach integrating Geographic Information System (GIS) and MCDM methods including Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and The Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE). A total of 20 flood indicators, including 11 hazard and 9 vulnerability indicators, were considered for evaluating flood risk maps of the study area. The criteria weights were derived from expert opinions along with a literature review. The results highlighted the importance of daily maximum rainfall, slope, and elevation criteria for hazard, and population density, bridges and culverts, and busy intersections criteria for vulnerability. In addition, the findings showed that 14.7% of Yakutiye district was at high and very high flood risk. Afterwards, in order to determine the flood risk priority of 44 neighborhoods determined in Yakutiye, TOPSIS and PROMETHEE approaches were used. Results revealed that the flood risk was higher in the southeastern part of the study area and also found that 8 out of 44 neighborhoods were located in high risk areas. The proposed generic framework provides solutions to specific problems in the field of flood risk and is a replicable approach in denser cities.