Floods are one of the major natural disasters in high rainfall regions, causing loss of life and property. The Savitri River Basin, nestled within the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats, is highly susceptible to recurrent and intense flooding due to its unique hydro-meteorological characteristics. A flood susceptibility map can help reduce disaster risks caused by human activities, especially urban development. Therefore, this study aims to identify and characterize flood hazard zones in the Savitri River basin, providing essential information for effective flood risk management and mitigation. Flooding factors such as slope, elevation, distance from the river, distance from roads, precipitation, drainage density, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), topographic wetness index (TWI), Land Use and Land Cover (LULC), and soil texture were analysed in a Geographic Information System (GIS). Weightages were assigned using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). With a consistency ratio (CR) of 0.05 for the correlation matrix, the flood susceptibility map indicates that 58% of the study area falls within a low susceptibility zone, 21.30% within a moderate zone, and 20.70% within a high susceptibility zone. Elevation, precipitation, and drainage density are the primary factors influencing flood risk. The results and insights from this research could assist government agencies in reducing flood risk within the basin.
Kashinath et al. (Tue,) studied this question.