Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Methods For Flood Risk Management

With the growing threat of more frequent and intense hydrologic disasters involving floods, there is a need to use and apply the state-of-the-art tools for flood risk management. Key components of flood risk management involve modeling of watershed hydrology, river hydrodynamics and mapping of flood inundation. With the availability of geo-spatial data and remotely sensed information for rainfall, topography, land use, soil, and stream flow, use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has become essential for modeling and mapping of floods. Besides data analysis and visualization, GIS can also be used to develop hydrologic and hydraulic models for understanding and simulating water resources of a region. Many regions in India are experiencing the effect of land use change, population growth, and climate on water resources in the form of both water scarcity and floods. As a result there is a need to develop a workforce for addressing critical issues related to water by using GIS and related computational tools. The proposed course will involve hands-on training in the use of GIS for watershed hydrology, river hydrodynamics and flood inundation mapping. Specific focus will on using stateof-the-art data and computational tools for flood risk management.