Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Department of Water Science and Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Birjand University, Birjand, Iran
2 Associate Professor, Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.
3 Department of Water Science and Engineering, Birjand University, Birjand, Iran
Abstract
Flooding is a sudden event influenced by various factors. This study aims to investigate the effects of watershed management projects on reducing flood risk in the study area of Darmian. Six main criteria were considered in this research: topography, land cover, river morphology, hydroclimate, geology, and human activities, along with ten sub-criteria: elevation, slope, landform, vegetation cover, land use, drainage density, distance from streams, precipitation, geology, and the mere presence or absence of watershed management projects. To determine the weight of each sub-criterion in identifying influential factors in flood occurrence, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was applied using the Expert Choice software. Subsequently, flood hazard zoning was conducted using fuzzy logic in ArcGIS under two scenarios: 1) the presence of watershed management projects and 2) the absence of these projects. The results indicated that drainage density and vegetation cover sub-criteria, with weights of 0.288 and 0.205, respectively, were the most significant, while the elevation sub-criterion, with a weight of 0.007, was the least significant in determining flood risk in the study area. Moreover, the findings revealed that the area classified as very high risk decreased from 49,567.55 to 60,606.82 hectares, and the area with high risk reduced from 116,976.42 to 88,824.38 hectares. Conversely, the area with medium risk increased from 101,449.71 to 123,260.3 hectares, and the low-risk area expanded from 39,126.18 to 64,428.01 hectares.
Keywords
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