Understanding the dynamics of floods in dry environments and predicting an accurate flood hazard map considering multiple standards and conflicting objectives is of great political and planning importance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s vision for the year 2030, in order to reduce losses in lives, property, and infrastructure. The objectives of this study are (1) to develop a flood vulnerability map identifying flood-prone areas along the Al-Shamal train railway pathway; (2) to forecast the vulnerability of urban areas, agricultural land, and infrastructure to possible future floods hazard; and (3) to introduce strategic solutions and recommendations to mitigate and protect such areas from the negative impacts of floods. In order to achieve these objectives, multicriteria decision analysis based on geographic information systems (GIS-MCDA) is used to build a flood hazard map of the study area. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to extract the weights of eight criteria which affect the areas which are prone to flooding hazards, including flow accumulation, distance from the wadi network, slope, rainfall density, drainage density, and rainfall speed. Furthermore, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC Curve) method is used to validate the presented flood hazard model. The results of the study reveal that there are five degrees of flooding hazard along the Al-Shamal train path, ranging from very high to very low. The high and very high hazard zones comprise 19.2 km along the path, which constitutes about 26.45% of the total path length, and are concentrated at the intersections of the Al-Shamal train pathway with the Bayer and Al-Makhrouk wadis. Moderate, low, and very low flood severity areas constitute nearly 53.39 km, representing 73.55% of the total length (72.59 km) of the track. These areas are concentrated at the intersection of the Al-Shamal train track with the Haseidah Al-Gharbiyeh and Hsaidah Umm Al-Nakhleh wadis. Urban and agricultural areas that are vulnerable to high and very high flooding hazards are shown to have areas of 29.23 km2 (22.12%) and 59.87 km2 (46.39%), respectively.
The current study aimed at measuring the impact of the change in land-use morphology on the increase of flood risk through its application to the case of the Riyadh–Dammam train track in Saudi Arabia. The track was exposed to drift on 18 February 2017, over a length of 10 km, in the district of Dhahran in the capital of Dammam. Flooding caused the train to drift off its track and resulted in damage to lives, property, and infrastructure. This resulted from human interventions in the preplanning land uses and changing the morphology of the land by encroaching on the valleys, which resulted in the loss of the environmental and ecological balance in the study area. In order to achieve these goals, land-use changes in the study area were monitored by analyzing successive images from the GEO-I-1 satellite with a resolution of 60 cm for the years 2011 and 2017, before and after the train drift, using the maximum likelihood classification process provided in ERDAS IMAGINE 2016. GIS was used in the processing of 1 m digital elevation models to extract the morphological changes of the wadies between 2011 and 2017. A hydrological model (HEC–HMS) was used in calculating the (flood) hydrograph curve of the wadies basins and estimating the calculation of flood water quantities and its flow rates based on the Soil Conservation Services (SCS) Unit Hydrograph Method. Rain depth was analyzed and estimated for different return periods. The HEC–RAS hydraulic modeling program was employed in developing a 2D model to calculate the velocity, depth, and spread of the flood in order to apply the risk matrix method.
The management of land use in big cities and capitals and the surrounding adjacent urban aggregates is still of major importance in the field of urban development, especially in cities with populations of millions and various types of land uses and economic activities. The rural–urban continuum between the cities of Ar Riyadh and Al Kharj suffers from an unclear general land use trend, due to urban expansion at the expense of the agriculture lands, the imbalance of the population compound, the deterioration of the urban fabric, lack and poor distribution of services, and the dominance of industrial land use at the expense of other uses. These factors have led to an increase in environmental changes and loss of the environmental and ecological characteristics of this area between Ar Riyadh and Al Kharj. The present study aims at evaluating the land use suitability for urban development in the rural–urban continuum between Ar Riyadh and Al Kharj cities. This is achieved by using the GIS-based Multi Criteria decision Analysis (GIS-MCDA) on twelve various economic, environmental, urban, and law criteria. The weights of criteria were determined using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The results of the spatial suitability map of the land use for sustainable urban development revealed that there are five categories of spatial suitability ranging in suitability from 32% to 86%. The recommended areas for sustainable urban development are those with a spatial suitability upwards of 70% in the rural–urban continuum corridor between Ar Riyadh and Al Kharj cities. The sustainable development in this corridor can be achieved by executing high priority projects that ensure and support the urban sustainable development plan through establishing four local urban development centers and upgrading four current villages to rural communities, aiming at strengthening the functional bonds between the rural communities and the local urban development centers. These projects will limit the sustainable urban development to specific areas without allowing random expansion, avoiding the urban conjugation of the two Ar Riyadh and Al Kharj cities through the connecting area between them.
Drainage basins in dry and semiarid environments are exposed to sudden, irregular flooding that poses a threat to urban areas and infrastructure. The associated risk is exacerbated by land use changes. Geomorphometric analyses of drainage basins based on geographic information systems (GIS) are essential tools for assessing conceptual flood hazards. Geomorphological data extracted from high-precision digital elevation models (DEMs) provide valuable information for modeling the geomorphic, surface classifications of the earth, and for flood hazard mapping. This study aimed to develop an integrative approach to the mapping of flood hazards along the Al-Shamal train pathway in the city of Qurayyat in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) using GIS and hazard modeling for geomorphological ranking. Furthermore, we propose strategic solutions to provide mitigation and protection from negative impacts with the aim of improving the level of awareness of flood geomorphology. The hazard model of geomorphological ranking was used in mapping and calculating the degree of hazards using 24 geomorphometric criteria. These criteria were divided into formal criteria, terrain criteria, and criteria related to the drainage network. The results of the study revealed that the drainage sub-basins are exposed to flood hazards along the Al-Shamal train pathway in the city of Qurayyat. The very high flood hazard constituted 4228.3 km2, accounting for 70.3% and 65.7%, respectively, of the drainage basins of the wadis of Makhrouq and Bayer. The high flood hazard represented 61% (4712.4 km2) of the basin of the wadis of Sarmadaa. The medium flood hazard was concentrated in the drainage basin of the wadi of Hasidah, accounting for nearly 57.7% (1271.3 km2). The very low flood hazard was present in 46.5% of the drainage basin of the wadis of Hasidah Umm Nakhla, accounting for an area of 799.4 km2. The methodology applied in this study can be used in the estimation of flood hazards in different drainage basins throughout Saudi Arabia and in similar arid regions.
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