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Topography Wetness Index Application in Flood-Risk-Based Land Use Planning

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Abstract

Land use planners and drainage engineers require, among other information, a clear map that delineates land subject to flash flooding before they can approve residential development. Through the application of spatially distributed models, the topographic wetness index (TWI) can be determined as an alternative to the traditional approach of delineating flood-prone areas using contours alone. The TWI provides a more cost-efficient approach to flood determination than conventional hydrodynamic models. This paper describes an application of the TWI approach to a flood-prone study area in the town of Inverloch, Victoria, Australia. The TWI proved useful in the early stages of land use planning for residential development in Inverloch.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge RMIT University, the department of  Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences, for their kind support. Our special thanks go to Mr. Paul Lennox, GIS team and all kind staff at Bass Coast Shire council for all their support, and to Dr Campbell Aitken for his professional editing services. We also would like to acknowledge anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, 3001, Australia

    S. H. Pourali, C. Arrowsmith, N. Chrisman & D. Mitchell

  2. Centre of Remote Sensing and GIS, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, 1983963113, Iran

    S. H. Pourali & A. A. Matkan

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  1. S. H. Pourali
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  2. C. Arrowsmith
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  3. N. Chrisman
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  4. A. A. Matkan
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  5. D. Mitchell
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Correspondence to S. H. Pourali.

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Pourali, S.H., Arrowsmith, C., Chrisman, N. et al. Topography Wetness Index Application in Flood-Risk-Based Land Use Planning. Appl. Spatial Analysis 9, 39–54 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-014-9130-2

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