Vulnerability of flash flooding in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Muhammad Tauhidur Rahman (), Adel S. Aldosary, Kh Md Nahiduzzaman and Imran Reza
Additional contact information
Muhammad Tauhidur Rahman: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Adel S. Aldosary: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Kh Md Nahiduzzaman: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Imran Reza: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2016, vol. 84, issue 3, No 15, 1807-1830

Abstract: Abstract In recent years, hazardous flash flooding has caused human deaths and damages to urban infrastructures in Saudi Arabian cities. This study has computed, mapped, and analyzed the physical vulnerability, social vulnerability, and overall composite flash flood vulnerability (CFVI) indices using a simulated flood and 2006 census data on seven social variables for 153 neighborhoods of the City of Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The physical vulnerability index was computed by ranking a potential flood depth map created by simulating a 6 h of high-intense rainfall in the city. The social vulnerability index was constructed by standardizing the social data variables. Finally, the two indices were multiplied to create the CFVI. The CFVI map revealed that the low-lying central and southern half of the city is highly vulnerable; northern and northeastern peripheral neighborhoods are moderately to highly vulnerable; and the mountainous western neighborhoods are the least vulnerable to flash flooding. Low-income and unemployed expatriate families living in densely populated central, south, and southeastern neighborhoods are more vulnerable to flooding than rich Saudi families living in the sparsely populated northern half of the central city, western, northwestern, and southwestern neighborhoods. The CFVI map will help city planners to formulate effective flood control measures to protect the city residents and urban infrastructures from future flood damage. This flood vulnerability research can be expanded to other Saudi cities by incorporating more physical and social variables.

Keywords: Vulnerability; Flash floods; Vulnerability assessment; Riyadh; Saudi Arabia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-016-2521-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:84:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s11069-016-2521-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-016-2521-8

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().