Integrating Remote Sensing and Hydrologic Modeling to Assess the Impact of Land-Use Changes on the Increase of Flood Risk: A Case Study of the Riyadh–Dammam Train Track, Saudi Arabia

Ashraf Abdelkarim, Ahmed F. D. Gaber, Ibtesam I. Alkadi and Haya M. Alogayell
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Ashraf Abdelkarim: Research Center, Ministry of Housing, Riyadh 11461, Saudi Arabia
Ahmed F. D. Gaber: Department of Geography, Faculty of Art, Sohag University, Sohag 82524, Egypt
Ibtesam I. Alkadi: Geography Department, College of Arts, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 84428, Saudi Arabia
Haya M. Alogayell: Geography Department, College of Arts, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 84428, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 21, 1-32

Abstract: The current study aimed at measuring the impact of the change in land-use morphology on the increase of flood risk through its application to the case of the Riyadh–Dammam train track in Saudi Arabia. The track was exposed to drift on 18 February 2017, over a length of 10 km, in the district of Dhahran in the capital of Dammam. Flooding caused the train to drift off its track and resulted in damage to lives, property, and infrastructure. This resulted from human interventions in the preplanning land uses and changing the morphology of the land by encroaching on the valleys, which resulted in the loss of the environmental and ecological balance in the study area. In order to achieve these goals, land-use changes in the study area were monitored by analyzing successive images from the GEO-I-1 satellite with a resolution of 60 cm for the years 2011 and 2017, before and after the train drift, using the maximum likelihood classification process provided in ERDAS IMAGINE 2016. GIS was used in the processing of 1 m digital elevation models to extract the morphological changes of the wadies between 2011 and 2017. A hydrological model (HEC–HMS) was used in calculating the (flood) hydrograph curve of the wadies basins and estimating the calculation of flood water quantities and its flow rates based on the Soil Conservation Services (SCS) Unit Hydrograph Method. Rain depth was analyzed and estimated for different return periods. The HEC–RAS hydraulic modeling program was employed in developing a 2D model to calculate the velocity, depth, and spread of the flood in order to apply the risk matrix method.

Keywords: land-use changes; wadi morphology; flood risk; Riyadh–Dammam train track; hydrological and hydraulic modeling; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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