Floods and Flood Hazard Assessment in the Floodplain of River Swat, District Charsadda, Pakistan

Amna Javed Qazi; Ihsan Qadir; Atta Ur Rahman

Authors

Amna Javed Qazi Department of Geography & Geomatics, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan
Ihsan Qadir Crisis Anticipation & Disaster Risk Financing Technical Specialist, Start Network
Atta Ur Rahman Department of Geography & Geomatics, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan

Keywords:

Floods, Flood Hazard Assessment, Flood Hazard Zonation, GIS, AHP, Mapping

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate flood risks and carry out flood hazard assessment in the floodplain of the River Swat, District Charsadda. This study focuses on two objectives: primarily, to explore the flood situation in the study area, and secondly, to carry out the flood hazard assessment in the floodplain of the River Swat, District Charsadda. The study area is located 27 km north-east of Peshawar city. District Charsadda is part of the Peshawar valley, and the study area covers an area of 1,593 Km2. The gentle slope is from north to south, which plays a major role in making it vulnerable to recurrent flood events. In District Charsadda, the floodplain of the River Swat is highly vulnerable to recurrent flooding during the summer season. There is a lack of flood hazard assessment for management strategies. Therefore, to minimize the negative impacts of floods, flood hazard assessment and management strategies will help reduce the losses resulting from recurrent flooding. There is a need to identify the flood hazard trend in the study area and to generate the flood hazard zonation map. The data are collected from PMD, PIDA, WAPDA, and the Survey of Pakistan. A SPOT recent 2.5m resolution satellite image is used for land use data, and the SRTM data of 90m resolution is used for the generation of a contour map, DEM, and drainage pattern. From the collected data, a hydrograph is created and projected, and the frequency of flood recurrence is determined. To obtain a good picture of the occurrence of floods, the data were also connected with temperature and rainfall characteristics. The AHP method is used to develop a flood hazard zonation map, for which the probability and recurrent intervals of the flood hazard are calculated by using the 24-year data from 1998-2022, and graphed. This clearly shows the recurrence of the flood hazard with specific magnitudes. The physical parameters, including the discharge, amount of rainfall, and elevation data, are used to develop a flood hazard zonation map under a combination of five zones.

Author Biography

Atta Ur Rahman, Department of Geography & Geomatics, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan

Professor, Department of Geography & Geomatics, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan

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