Advancing urban flood mitigation and climate resilience: a GIS-based hydrodynamic modeling approach using HEC-RAS and remote sensing data

Over the past decades, significant adverse effects, including the resiliency of critical centers, have emerged. The negative impact has manifested in the vulnerability of critical urban centers during natural disasters and emergencies, leading to their inefficiency, heightened public dissatisfaction, and a breakdown in service delivery during crises. In order to enhance the resilience of key centers, it is essential to first identify and assess the vulnerability of these crucial urban hubs to various risks and threats. In this research, the classification was graded and assessed following the formulation of a questionnaire and the collection of results. Utilizing the arithmetic mean of sample opinions, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied through the Expert Choice software to assign weights to these criteria and sub-criteria. Subsequently, the key urban centers were identified. The hydrology within the city and its surroundings, along with the modeling of rivers during various return periods, were studied using the HEC_RAS. The results were then integrated into GIS to delineate flood risk zones in the city of Hamedan. Following the input of the arithmetic mean of sample opinions into the Expert Choice, the value of each indicator was meticulously determined. This delineation indicates that the quantitative level indicator benefits from the maximum weight, while the economics of assets hold the least weight in the assessment. Ultimately, by aligning key urban centers with flood-prone zones in the GIS framework, vulnerable centers were enumerated. The method used in this study can be extended to all cities based on their river flow modeling and urban zoning.