Prediction of Flash Flood Susceptibility of Hilly Terrain Using Deep Neural Network:A Case Study of Vietnam

Flash floods are one of the most dangerous natural disasters,especially in hilly terrain,causing loss of life,property,and infrastructures and sudden disruption of traffic.These types of floods are mostly associated with landslides and erosion of roads within a short time.Most of Vietnamis hilly and mountainous;thus,the problem due to flash flood is severe and requires systematic studies to correctly identify flood susceptible areas for proper landuse planning and traffic management.In this study,three Machine Learning(ML)methods namely Deep Learning Neural Network(DL),Correlation-based FeatureWeighted Naive Bayes(CFWNB),and Adaboost(AB-CFWNB)were used for the development of flash flood susceptibility maps for hilly road section(115 km length)of National Highway(NH)-6 inHoa Binh province,Vietnam.In the proposedmodels,88 past flash flood events were used together with 14 flash floods affecting topographical and geo-environmental factors.The performance of themodels was evaluated using standard statisticalmeasures including Receiver Operating Characteristic(ROC)Curve,Area Under Curve(AUC)and Root Mean Square Error(RMSE).The results revealed that all the models performed well(AUC>0.80)in predicting flash flood susceptibility zones,but the performance of the DL model is the best(AUC:0.972,RMSE:0.352).Therefore,the DL model can be applied to develop an accurate flash flood susceptibility map of hilly terrain which can be used for proper planning and designing of the highways and other infrastructure facilities besides landuse management of the area.

GIS-based flash flooding susceptibility analysis and water management in arid mountain ranges:Safaga Region,Red Sea Mountains,Egypt

The Safaga Region(SR)is part of the Red Sea mountain range in Egypt.Catastrophic flash flooding is now an inescapable event,wreaking havoc and causing massive loss of life and property.The majority of the floodwater,however,has been wasted as runoff to the Red Sea,which,if used wisely,could meet a fraction of the water demands for a variety of applications in this area.The current work aims to use GIS techniques to integrate remote sensing data for evaluating,mitigating,and managing flash floods in SR.The data set comprised Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(TRMM)thematic rainfall data,1:50,000 scale topographical map sheets,geological maps,the ASTER Digital Elevation Model(ASTER GDEM),Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper"(ETM7+),and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager.The flash flood risk model of SR is developed using ArcGIS-10.3 geoprocessing tools integrating all the causal factors thematic maps.The final flood risk model for the SR suggests that 57%of the total basins in the SR are at high risk of flooding.Almost 38%of all basins are at moderate flood risk.The remaining 5%of basins are less prone to flooding.Flood-prone zones were identified,suitable dam-building sites were located,and extremely probable areas for water recharge were recognized.On the basis of reliable scientific data,structural and non-structural mitigation strategies that might reduce the damage susceptibility,alleviate the sensitivity of the flash flood,and best utilize its water supply were recommended.

Regionalization and the Method for Risk Grading for Flash Flood Disaster in Tibet Region

Flash flood is one of the major meteorological disasters on the Tibet Plateau (TP). Flash flood risk regionalization based on the theory of flash flood occurrence risk is the essential basis for relative risk management. The flash flood risk regionalization and the high-resolution grid mountain flood risk level in TP is carried out by using ArcGIS with the indicators of rainfall, days of heavy rain, vegetation cover, slope, relative elevation difference, river network density, population density, average GDP and traffic density. The areas with high mountain flood risk are mainly located in the middle and downstream of Yarlung, the Nujiang River Valley, the Jinsha River and Lancang River Basin. Besides, the results of flash flood disaster risk regionalization were tested by using historical flash flood disaster data and calamity census data. The disasters occurred in high-risk and sub-high-risk regions are accounted for 73%. Flash floods that cause casualties and economic losses of more than 100,000 CNY (Chinese Yuan) occurred in high-risk areas. Flash flood risk assessment may provide reference for the prevention and control of geological disasters in TP, improve disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities, reduce the hazards of flash floods to social development.

Full 2D Hydrodynamic Modelling of Rainfall-induced Flash Floods

Mountain catchments are prone to flash flooding due to heavy rainfall. Enhanced understanding of the generation and evolution processes of flash floods is essential for effective flood risk management. However, traditional distributed hydrological models based on kinematic and diffusion wave approximations ignore certain physical mechanisms of flash floods and thus bear excessive uncertainty. Here a hydrodynamic model is presented for flash floods based on the full two-dimensional shallow water equations incorporating rainfall and infiltration. Laboratory experiments of overland flows were modelled to illustrate the capability of the model. Then the model was applied to resolve two observed flash floods of distinct magnitudes in the Lengkou catchment in Shanxi Province, China. The present model is shown to be able to reproduce the flood flows fairly well compared to the observed data. The spatial distribution of rainfall is shown to be crucial for the modelling of flash floods. Sensitivity analyses of the model parameters reveal that the stage and discharge hydrographs are more sensitive to the Manning roughness and initial water content in the catchment than to the Green-Ampt head. Most notably, as the flash flood augments due to heavier rainfall, the modelling results agree with observed data better, which clearly characterizes the paramount role of rainfall in dictating the floods. From practical perspectives, the proposed model is more appropriate for modelling large flash floods.

Experimental Study of the Interaction between Building Clusters and Flash Floods

In recent years, flash flood disasters have occurred frequently in southwest China due to the increased frequency of extreme climate events. To solve this problem, great efforts have been made in studying the process of flash flood. However, little attention was paid on bearing body of hazard, the clusters of buildings. Thus the real disaster mechanism of flash flood remains unclear.Accordingly, based on the experiments of artificial flash floods in a conceptual solid model, this paper focuses on the flood-impacted inundation characteristics of the building clusters at different locations of the gully model, in order to obtain a better understanding of the disaster process and the interaction between the flash floods and building clusters. The results showed that, in a typical smallscale flash flood gully with hot and dry climate, 1)clusters of buildings on an alluvial fan could reduce about 35% of the flooding area by blocking the diffusion of the flood to the depression areas, and could also promote the deposition in lower reaches of the river channel by blocking the overbank flow from going back into the channel, making the width-depth ratio of the channel larger. 2) The flash flood rates of disaster and hazard on the alluvial fan are generally higher than that of the inner gully. For the inner gully,buildings located on the beaches along the lower river and the transitional areas of the straight channel and channel bends can easily be affected because of their lower elevations. For the alluvial fan, buildings nearby the meanders suffer the greatest impacts because of bank collapsing and flooding. 3) The safe vertical distance from a building to the river channel is 13 m for the buildings in the inner gully under extreme floods. Below this threshold, the smaller the vertical distance is, the greater the risk exposure is. For the buildings on the alluvial fan, especially for the buildings near the concave bank of the top rush point,the horizontal distance is more important, and the safe value is 80 m under extreme floods.

Flash flood hazard mapping: A pilot case study in Xiapu River Basin, China

Flash flood hazard mapping is a supporting component of non-structural measures for flash flood prevention. Pilot case studies are necessary to develop more practicable methods for the technical support systems of flash flood hazard mapping. In this study, the headwater catchment of the Xiapu River Basin in central China was selected as a pilot study area for flash flood hazard mapping. A conceptual distributed hydrological model was developed for flood calculation based on the framework of the Xinanjiang model, which is widely used in humid and semi-humid regions in China. The developed model employs the geomorphological unit hydrograph method, which is extremely valuable when simulating the overland flow process in ungauged catchments, as compared with the original Xinanjiang model. The model was tested in the pilot study area, and the results agree with the measured data on the whole. After calibration and validation, the model is shown to be a useful tool for flash flood calculation. A practicable method for flash flood hazard mapping using the calculated peak discharge and digital elevation model data was presented, and three levels of flood hazards were classified. The resulting flash flood hazard maps indicate that the method successfully predicts the spatial distribution of flash flood hazards, and it can meet the current requirements in China.

Increasing Flash Floods in a Drying Climate over Southwest China

In a globally warming world, subtropical regions are generally expected to become drier while the tropics and mid-high latitudes become wetter. In line with this, Southwest China, close to 25°N, is expected to become increasingly prone to drought if annual mean precipitation decreases. However, despite this trend, changes in the temporal distribution of moisture supply might actually result in increased extreme rainfall in the region, whose climate is characterized by distinct dry and wet seasons. Using hourly and daily gauge observations, rainfall intensity changes since 1971 are exalnined for a network of 142 locations in the region. From the analysis, dry season changes are negligible but wet season changes exhibit a significantly strong downward trend [-2.4% （10 yr）^-1], particularly during the past 15 years [-17.7% （10 yr）^-1]. However, the intensity of events during the wettest of 5% hours appears to steadily increase during the whole period [1.4% （10 yr）^-1], tying in with government statistical reports of recent droughts and flooding. If the opposing trends are a consequence of a warming climate, it is reasonable to expect the contradictory trend to continue with an enhanced risk of flash flooding in coming decades in the region concerned.

Flash flood susceptibility mapping using a novel deep learning model based on deep belief network,back propagation and genetic algorithm

Flash floods are responsible for loss of life and considerable property damage in many countries.Flood susceptibility maps contribute to flood risk reduction in areas that are prone to this hazard if appropriately used by landuse planners and emergency managers.The main objective of this study is to prepare an accurate flood susceptibility map for the Haraz watershed in Iran using a novel modeling approach(DBPGA)based on Deep Belief Network(DBN)with Back Propagation(BP)algorithm optimized by the Genetic Algorithm(GA).For this task,a database comprising ten conditioning factors and 194 flood locations was created using the One-R Attribute Evaluation(ORAE)technique.Various well-known machine learning and optimization algorithms were used as benchmarks to compare the prediction accuracy of the proposed model.Statistical metrics include sensitivity,specificity accuracy,root mean square error(RMSE),and area under the receiver operatic characteristic curve(AUC)were used to assess the validity of the proposed model.The result shows that the proposed model has the highest goodness-of-fit(AUC=0.989)and prediction accuracy(AUC=0.985),and based on the validation dataset it outperforms benchmark models including LR(0.885),LMT(0.934),BLR(0.936),ADT(0.976),NBT(0.974),REPTree(0.811),ANFIS-BAT(0.944),ANFIS-CA(0.921),ANFIS-IWO(0.939),ANFIS-ICA(0.947),and ANFIS-FA(0.917).We conclude that the DBPGA model is an excellent alternative tool for predicting flash flood susceptibility for other regions prone to flash floods.

Modeling on Flash Flood Disaster Induced by Bed Load

Flash floods result from a complex interaction among hydro-meteorological, hydrological, and hydraulic processes across various spatial and temporal scales. Sichuan Province suffers flash floods frequently owing to mountain weather and topography. A flash flood and gravel bed load transport are two key relative problems in mountain river engineering. Bed materials are often encountered in alternate scouring and deposition in mountain fluvial processes during a flash flood. In this circumstance, CRS-1 bed load numerical model jointly with scale physical model is employed to predict water level and gravel bed scour and deposition for design of flood control dykes and flash flood disaster mitigation. A case study on the mechanism of a flash flood disaster induced by bed load transport for a hydropower station in Sichuan Province is conducted. Finally, suggestions to protect the hydropower station are proposed.

Morphometric Analysis and Flash Floods Assessment for Drainage Basins of the Ras En Naqb Area, South Jordan Using GIS

Morphometric analysis and flash floods assessment were conducted for the watersheds of Ras En Naqb escarpment, south Jordan. The study area comprises of twelve small watersheds occupying the faulted-erosional slopes, and the dip slopes. The drainage network shows that dendritic and sub-dendritic patterns dominated the dip slopes, whereas trellis pattern characterized the faulted-erosional slopes. Stream orders range from fourth to sixth order. The mean bifurcation ratios vary between 4.2 and 5.38 for the dip slope basins, and between 3.5 and 5.0 for the faulted-erosional slope watersheds, indicating a noticeable influence of structural disturbances (i.e., faulting and uplifting), and rejuvenation of drainage networks. All watersheds have short basin lengths, ranging from 23.8 km to 42.2 km for the dip slope basins, and between 15.3 km and 45.4 km for the faulted-erosional slope catchments. This is indicative of high flooding susceptibility associated with heavy rainstorms of short duration. The circularity ratios range from 0.177 to 0.704 which denote that the catchments are moderately circular on the faulted-erosional slopes, and to some extent elongated on the dip slopes. The length of overland flow values ranges from 0.854 to 0.924 for the dip slope catchments, whereas LO values for the faulted-erosional slopes vary from 0.793 to 0.945 denoting steep slopes and shorter paths on both dip slope and faulted-erosional slope watersheds. Values of stream frequency range from 1.509 to 1.692 for the dip slope, and from 1.688 to 2.0 for the faulted-erosional slope catchments. FS values are also indicative of slope steepness, low infiltration rate, and high flooding potential. The watersheds of the dip slopes show lower values of form factor varying from 0.079 to 0.364, indicating elongated shape and suggesting a relatively flat hydrograph peak for longer duration. Similarly, values of Dd are high for catchments on the dip slope basins (1.709 - 1.85) and the faulted-erosional slope watersheds (1.587 - 2.0) indicating highly dissected topography, high surface runoff, low infiltration rate, and consequently high flooding potential. Furthermore, high relief values exist, ranging from 388 m to 714 m for the dip slope basins, and from 421 m to 846 m for the faulted-erosional slope catchments indicting high relief and steep slopes. Morphometric analysis, and flash flood assessment suggest that ten watersheds (83.3%) are categorized under high and intermediate flooding susceptibility, and the faulted-erosional slope catchments are more hazardous in terms of flooding. Thus the protection of Ma’an, El Jafr rural Bedouin settlements, and Amman-Aqaba highway from recurrent flooding is essential to ensure sustainable future development in Ras En Naqb-Ma’an area.

Long-term reconstruction of flash floods in the Qilian Mountains,China,based on dendrogeomorphic methods

In China,flash floods are one of the main natural disasters causing loss of life and damage to infrastructure.The threat of flash floods is exacerbated with climate change and increased human activities,such that the number of disasters has shown a clear upward trend in recent years.However,due to the scarcity of instrumental data or overly short timeseries,we are still lacking critical data to understand spatio-temporal patterns and driving factors of extreme flash floods.This missing knowledge is however crucial for a proper management of these hazards,especially in remote mountain environments.In forested catchments,dendrogeomorphology allows the reconstruction of past process activity based on growth disturbances(GDs)in trees that have been affected by past flash floods.Therefore,in our study,for the first time,we reconstruct past flash floods in the Qilian Mountains,northeast Tibetan Plateau,over past centuries.To this end,we sampled 99 Qinghai spruce(Picea crassifolia)trees affected by flash floods,with a total of 194increment cores,and identified 302 GDs induced by past flash floods.These GDs have been caused by at least 21 flash floods that we are able to reconstruct over the last 170 years.The position of GDs within tree rings and the intra-seasonal dating of past events also allowed discussion of the likely synoptic situations that may have led to the triggering of flash floods in the past.Logistic regression analysis confirms that significant correlation exists between cumulative maximum 5-day August-September precipitation and reconstructed flash floods,which is corresponding to the majority of scars and related tangential rows of traumatic resin ducts(TRDs)found in the latewood portion of growth rings.These results support the idea that abundant precipitation occurring at the end of the summer season and early fall is the key factor driving flash floods in our study area.Our research not only fills the gaps regarding historical flash flood histories in the Qilian Mountains,but also provides a scientific basis for the region's response to climate change and flood prevention and reduction.

Failure criteria of unreinforced masonry walls of rural buildings under the impact of flash floods in mountainous regions

Damage to rural buildings in mountainous regions caused by flash floods accounts for a significant proportion of economic losses from disasters.The unreinforced masonry(URM)wall is the most vulnerable structural element of rural buildings exposed to flash floods.The failure of a URM wall indicates damage to rural buildings in flash floods.Based on the yield line theory of out-of-plane damage of URM walls and the virtual work method,brittle failure criteria for URM walls under the impact of flash floods were established.According to the field investigation data of the 26 June 2020 flash flood event in Damawu Gully and the corresponding simulation results of FLO-2D,the disaster-causing process was analysed,and the failure criteria were validated.Three building parameters were identified to influence the flood-resistance of URM walls,including the mortar grade,the span-to-height ratio of the wall,and the number of floors of the rural building.The results showed that the cause of the 26June disaster was the diversion of a 50-year flash flood into the residential community on the alluvial fan.The affected buildings were constructed with hollow blocks and lacked flood-resistance reinforcement.The critical failure depth of a URM wall restrained at the top by ring beams(RBs)under hydrostatic load conditions is 1.17 to 1.20 times greater than that of a URM wall without RBs,and the difference is even more pronounced when lowerstrength mortar is used.The flood-resistance of a URM wall constructed with Mb 7.5 mortar and restrained by RBs is almost as strong as that of a URM wall constructed with Mb 20 mortar and without RBs.The span-to-height ratio of a URM wall should not be greater than 1.875 in this case.However,the flood-resistance of a URM wall with RB restraint is almost independent of the span-to-height ratio.The brittle fracture energy of masonry mortar is more crucial to the flood-resistance of 4-edge restrained URM walls if L/Z>1.875.The flood-resistance of the URM wall of the first storey increases linearly with the number of floors.Single-storey rural buildings should be given priority to the use of high-grade masonry mortar and high-density blocks to improve flood-resistance.The failure criteria and the influence laws of building parameters on the flood-resistance of URM walls can provide references for flash flood mitigation and flood-resistance reinforcement of rural buildings in mountainous regions of Southwest China.

Solar Forcing on Makkah AI-Mukaramah Flash Floods

Severe solar events manifested by highly energetic X-Ray events accompanied by coronal mass ejections and proton flares caused flash floods in Makkah AI-Mukaramab, A1-Madinah AI-Munawarah and Jeddah. The responses can be prompt, delayed or prompt-delayed, suggesting that the protons entered the troposphere either through the opening of a direct gate in the magnetosphere to the location concer.led due to magnetic reconnection, through the polar gates or through those two paths respectively. The authors suggest that there is a magnetic anomaly in Makkah AI-Mukaramah area which makes it liable to be subjected to flash floods. The width of the solar streams determines the width of the gate opened in the magnetosphere via magnetic reconnection and thus narrow streams affect only one location of the three cities while extended width streams can cause flash floods in all of Makkah AI-Mukaramah AI-Madinah AI Munawarah and Jeddah. In addition, the November 24-26 Jeddah flash flood could be attributed to a prompt event due to a moderately fast solar stream that arrived the earth on those days.

Hydrological Evaluation with SWAT Model and Numerical Weather Prediction for Flash Flood Warning System in Thailand

Flash floods are a natural disaster that occurs annually, especially in the mountainous terrain and steep slopes of northern Thailand. The current flood forecasting systems and tools are available but have low accuracy and efficiency. The numbers of rainfall and runoff stations are less, because the access to the station area is difficult. Additionally, the operation and maintenance costs are high. Hydrological modeling of a SWAT （Soil and Water Assessment Tool） was used in this study with the application of three days weather forecast from the NWP （numerical weather prediction）, which provided temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, sunshine and wind speed. The data from NWP and SWAT were used to simulate the runoff from the Nan River in the last 10 years （2000-2010）. It was found that the simulated flow rate for the main streams using data from NWP were higher than the observations. At the N64 and Nl stations, the ratios of the maximum simulated flow rate to the observations were equal to 108% and 118%, respectively. However, for the tributaries, it was found that the simulated flow rate using NWP data was lower than the observations, but, it was still within the acceptable range of not greater than 20%,6. At N65, D090201 and D090203 stations, the ratio of the maximum simulated flow rate were 90.0%, 83.0% and 86.0%, respectively. This was due to the rainfall from the NWP model being greater than the measured rainfall. The NWP rainfall was distributed all over the area while the rainfall data from the measurements were obtained from specific points. Therefore, the rain from the NWP model is very useful especially for the watershed areas without rain gauge stations. In summary, the data from the NWP can be used with the SWAT model and provides relatively sound results despite the value for the main river being slightly higher than the observed data. Consequently, the output can be used to create a flood map for flash flood warning in the area.

Response of Flash Flood Early Warning Critical Rainfall to Storm Pattern in South Branch of Censhui Watershed

Critical rainfall estimation for early warning of rainstorm-induced flash flood is an inverse rainstorm-runoff process based on warning discharge threshold for a warning station of interest in a watershed. The key aspects of critical rainfall include rainfall amount and rainfall duration. Storm pattern affects highly the estimation of critical rainfall. Using hydrological modeling technique with detailed sub-basin delineation and manual for design rainstorm-runoff computation, this study first introduced basic concept and analysis methods on critical rainfall for flash flood early warning, then, investigated the responses of flash flood warning critical rainfall to storm pattern. Taking south branch of Censhui watershed in China as an example, critical rainfall in case of typical storm patterns for early warning of rainstorm-induced flash flood were estimated at 3 warning stations. This research illustrates that storm pattern plays important role in the estimation of critical rainfall and enough attention should also be paid to storm pattern when making a decision on whether a warning to be issued or not.

Implementation of Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques to Study the Flash Flood Risk at NEOM Mega-City, Saudi Arabia

Southern Red Sea flooding is common. Assessing flood-prone development risks helps decrease life and property threats. It tries to improve flood awareness and advocate property owner steps to lessen risk. DEMs and topography data were analyzed by RS and GIS. Fifth-through seventh-order rivers were studied. Morphometric analysis assessed the area’s flash flood danger. NEOM has 14 catchments. We determined each catchment’s area, perimeter, maximum length, total stream length, minimum and maximum elevations. It also uses remote sensing. It classifies Landsat 8 photos for land use and cover maps. Image categorization involves high-quality Landsat satellite images and secondary data, plus user experience and knowledge. This study used the wetness index, elevation, slope, stream power index, topographic roughness index, normalized difference vegetation index, sediment transport index, stream order, flow accumulation, and geological formation. Analytic hierarchy considered all earlier criteria (AHP). The geometric consistency index GCI (0.15) and the consistency ratio CR (4.3%) are calculated. The study showed five degrees of flooding risk for Wadi Zawhi and four for Wadi Surr, from very high to very low. 9.16% of Wadi Surr is vulnerable to very high flooding, 50% to high flooding, 40% to low flooding, and 0.3% to very low flooding. Wadi Zawhi’s flood risk is 0.23% high, moderate, low, or extremely low. They’re in Wadi Surr and Wadi Zawhi. Flood mapping helps prepare for emergencies. Flood-prone areas should prioritize resilience.

Critical Rainfall Analysis on Flash Flood Early Warning for South Branch of Censhui Watershed

Critical rainfall for flash flood early warning is a converse result of precipitation-runoffprocess based on warning discharge threshold for a warning station of interest in a watershed; the key aspects of critical rainfall include rainfall amount and rainfall duration Using hydrological modeling technique with detailed sub-basin delineation and manual for design precipitation-runoff computation, this study introduces basic concept and methods of analyzing critical rainfall for flash flood early warning. Taking South Branch of Censhui watershed in China as an example, typical critical rainfalls for flash flood dynamic early warning were estimated for 3 warning stations located in the watershed. This research illustrates that detailed watershed characteristics in the context of several warning stations can be modeled in-depth by further delineating the watershed into smaller sub-basins to simulate spatial distribution of various basin parameters. It further confirms that time of concentration of a watershed is an important factor to rainfall duration determination, and the antecedent soil moisture condition of a watershed has significant impact on critical rainfall for same rainfall duration.

Flash Flood Risk Estimation of Wadi Yutum (Southern Jordan) Watershed Using GIS Based Morphometric Analysis and Remote Sensing Techniques

Flash flood disasters associated with heavy rainstorms are common in dry lands of Jordan. This causes inestimable damage to life and infrastructure. In the present investigation, flash floods were assessed in Wadi Yutum watershed, southern Jordan. Assessment was conducted using remote sensing and GIS techniques, combined with geological and geomorphic field data to evaluate the probability of flooding risk spatially. Two methods were used to assess the flooding risk for seventeen sub-basins of W. Yutum: the morphometric ranking method;and El-Shamy’s approach. Both methods utilized twenty morphometric parameters of paramount interest for flash flood risk estimation. The results achieved based on the two methods enabled identification of sub-basins with a high potential of flash flooding, and served to reveal the common sub-basins falling under each category of flooding risk. Morphometric analysis and GIS were employed to produce flood hazard maps which displayed sub-basins exposed to harmful flooding in Wadi Yutum. The adopted methodology can be applied to estimate flooding risk in other comparable watersheds and region in Jordan. Further, preparedness measures can be proposed in a timely manner in order to minimize destructive flood effects.

Sequential Damming Induced Winter Season Flash Flood in Uttarakhand Province of India

204 persons were killed while two hydropower projects located in close proximity at Rishiganga(13.2 MW),and Tapoban(520 MW)were damaged in Dhauliganga flood of February 7,2021 in the Indian Himalaya.This incidence occurred during the winter season when the discharge of the glacier fed rivers is minimal,and no rain was experienced in the region around the time of the flood.Despite discharge of the main river,Rishiganga,not involved in the flood due to damming upstream of its confluence with Raunthi Gadhera,based on field evidences massive volume of around 6 million cu m water involved in this flood is attributed to sequential intermittent damming at three different places;(i)Raunthi Gadhera was dammed first in its upper reaches,(ii)Rishiganga river was then dammed to the north of Murunna,and(iii)finally Dhauliganga river was dammed around Rini village to the upstream of its confluence with Rishiganga river.Lacking warning system only enhanced the flood-induced devastation.Legally binding disaster risk assessment regime,together with robust warning generation,and dissemination infrastructure are therefore recommended for all major infrastructure projects.

Flash Floods and Groundwater Recharge Potentials in Arid Land Alluvial Basins, Southern Red Sea Coast, Egypt

Flash flooding is one of the periodic geohazards in the southern Red Sea Coast. However, their freshwaters are the main source of recharging alluvial and fractured aquifers. This paper presents hydrological and geomorphologic classification of Wadi El-Gemal, Wadi Umm El-Abas, Wadi Abu Ghuson and Wadi Lahmi, along the southeastern Red Sea Coast in Egypt. The main goal is to find a relationship of flash floods and groundwater recharge potentials. Satellite imageries and topographic data were analysed via remote sensing and GIS techniques. The main four valleys’ orders range from six to seven. Wadi El-Gemal was the main focus of this study;it is characterized by high stream frequency, low stream density and coarse texture, reflecting influence of highly fractured Precambrian rocks. Most of the wadis have umbrella-shaped catchment areas, due to the influence of NW-SE Najd Fault System and late E-W strike-slip faults. The main wadis were divided into 45 sub-basins. 14 of the studied sub-basins flow into Wadi El-Gemal, 7 flow into Wadi Umm El-Abas, 10 are in Abu Ghuson, and rest of the basins flow into WadiLahmi. A conceptual model was used in this study, showing that most of the sub-basins have high flash flooding and low groundwater recharge potentials. However, only two sub-basins have low potential of flooding and high potential of groundwater recharge, whereas few sub-basins have moderate potential of groundwater recharge as well as flooding. For flash floods beneficiation and mitigation, construction of multifunctional embankment dams is imminent.