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Designating Appropriate Areas for Flood Mitigation and Rainwater Harvesting in Arid Region Using a GIS-based Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

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Abstract

Flash floods are highly devastating, however there is no effective management for their water in Saudi Arabia, therefore, it is crucial to adopt Rainfall Water Harvesting (RWH) techniques to mitigate the flash floods and manage the available water resources. The goal of this study is to create a potential flood hazard map and a map of suitable locations for RWH in Wadi Nisah, Saudi Arabia to identify potential areas for rainwater harvesting and dam construction for both a flood mitigation and water harvesting. This research was carried out using a spatiotemporal distributed model based on multi-criteria decision analysis by combining Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making tools (MCDM). The flood hazard mapping criteria were elevation, drainage density, slope, direct runoff depth at 50 years return period, Topographic witness index, and Curve Number, while the criteria for RWH were Slope, Land cover, Stream order, Lineaments density, and Average of annual max-24 h Rainfall. In multi-criteria decision analysis, 21.55% of the total area for Wadi Nisah was classified as extremely dangerous and dangerous; 65.29% of the total area was classified as moderate; and 13.15% of the total area was classified as safe and very safe in flash flood hazard classes. Only 15% of Wadi Nisah has a very high potentiality for RWH and 27.7%, 57.31% of the basin has a moderate and a low or extremely low potentiality of RWH, respectively. ranged from 3976104.499 m3 to 4328509.123 m3; and the maximum surface area of reservoirs ranged from 1268372.63 m2 to 1505825.676.14 m2.

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Availability of Data and Materials

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

Authors would acknowledge the support from Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2023R297), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Engineering Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Mahmoud M. Abd-el-Kader & Ahmed M. El-Feky

  2. Water Resources Research Center, DPRI, Kyoto University, Goka-Sho, Uji City, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan

    Mohamed Saber

  3. Soil Science Department, College of Food and Agriculture Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Maged M. AlHarbi

  4. PSIPW Chair, Prince Sultan Institute for Environmental, Water and Desert Research, King Saud University, KSA, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Abed Alataway

  5. Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh, 11421, Saudi Arabia

    Faisal M. Alfaisal

Authors
  1. Mahmoud M. Abd-el-Kader
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  3. Mohamed Saber
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Contributions

Conceptualization M M. A, AE. F; Methodology: M M. A, AE. Formal analysis: M M. A; Investigation: M M. A, AE. F; Writing—original draft; M M. A, M. S; writing—review & editing M M. A, AE. F, M. S, F.M.A; funding acquisition: M. A; A. A; AE. F, M. S, F.M.A; Resources; M. A; AE. F; Supervision; M. A; AE. F, M. S.

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Correspondence to Ahmed M. El-Feky.

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Abd-el-Kader, M.M., El-Feky, A.M., Saber, M. et al. Designating Appropriate Areas for Flood Mitigation and Rainwater Harvesting in Arid Region Using a GIS-based Multi-criteria Decision Analysis. Water Resour Manage 37, 1083–1108 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-022-03416-6

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