Flash Flood Hazard Using Optical, Radar, and Stereo-Pair Derived DEM: Eastern Desert, Egypt

Abstract

Flash floods are classified among the Earth’s most deadly and destructive natural hazards, particularly in arid regions. Wadi El-Ambagi, one of the largest drainage basins in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, is frequently subjected to severe flash flood damage following intense, short-lived rainstorms. This wadi is home to one of the few road networks which connects the Nile River Valley to the Red Sea Coast. At its outlet lies Quseir, one of the major coastal towns in the area. Quseir is a developing tourism and scuba diving town, and is known for its historical importance as an ancient port; thus, efforts are in place to preserve the town’s heritage. The lack of hydrological and meteorological data in this region necessitates the use of a hydrological modeling approach to predict the spatial extent, depth, and velocity of the flood waters, and hence locate sites at risk of flood inundation. This was accomplished by understanding the characteristics of surface runoff through modeled hydrographs. Here, elevation data were extracted from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and a two-meter digital elevation model (DEM) derived from WorldView-2 stereo pair imagery. The land use/land cover and soil properties were mapped from fused ASTER multispectral and ALOS-PALSAR Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to produce a hybrid image that combines spectral properties and surface roughness, respectively. The results showed that storm events with rainfall intensities of 30 mm and ~60 mm over a two-hour period would generate maximum peak flows of 165 m3 s−1 and 875 m3 s−1 , respectively. The latter peak flow would generate floods with depths of up to 2 m within the town of Quseir. A flood of this magnitude would inundate 217 buildings, 7 km of the highway, and 1.43 km of the railroad in the downstream area of Wadi El-Ambagi. Findings from this work indicate that the integration of remote sensing and hydrological modeling can be a practical and quick approach to predict flash flood hazards in arid regions where data are scarce.

Prediction of Flash Flood Susceptibility Using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (Fahp) Algorithms and Gis: A Study Case of Guelmim Region in Southwestern of Morocco

“…At different scales is a very useful product for a resource manager, it can be drawn from a wide variety of satellite images to meet the needs of users and provide the information needed to decision makers. Land use has an important job in runoff velocity which was the main source of encouragement to use it in this study (Mashaly and Ghoneim 2018). The study zone case land use map that was created from the Landsat 8 OLI satellite image with spatial resolution 30 m × 30 m, and it has an indication about five important classes: Build-up, water, vegetation, agriculture and soil ( Figure 2).…”

Assessment of Satellite-Based Precipitation Measurement Products over the Hot Desert Climate of Egypt

“…Arid regions are facing numerous challenges in managing limited water resources [1,2]. Although rainfall is considered one of the most crucial elements for a wide range of socio-economic activities in this harsh environment [3], extreme precipitation often leads to devastating flash floods [2,4]. Costa [5] reported that arid and semi-arid regions are susceptible to greater rainfall intensity leading to severe floods more than humid regions.…”

“…In the last three decades, a number of satellite sensors have been developed to provide precipitation estimations across the globe. These data are widely used in various hydro-climatological studies [2,4,14,15], particularly in data-scarce regions where observation stations are limited.…”

Preface: Remote Sensing for Flood Mapping and Monitoring of Flood Dynamics

“…For the same event, Chini et al [9] tested Sentinel-1 InSAR Coherence to detect flood waters in the urban areas of Houston (TX, USA). For better modelling of flash flood events, especially in arid regions, Mashaly and Ghoneim [10] used a variety of satellite elevation data and images to characterize the surface runoff in the Egyptian desert.…”