scholarly journals Volumetric Quantification of Flash Flood Using Microwave Data on a Watershed Scale in Arid Environments, Saudi Arabia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4115
Author(s):  
Jaka Budiman ◽  
Jarbou Bahrawi ◽  
Asep Hidayatulloh ◽  
Mansour Almazroui ◽  
Mohamed Elhag
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Flash Flood ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Surface Elevation ◽  
Flood Mapping ◽  
Depth Information ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Volume Calculation ◽  
Flood Depth ◽  
Flood Volume

Actual flood mapping and quantification in an area provide valuable information for the stakeholder to prevent future losses. This study presents the actual flash flood quantification in Al-Lith Watershed, Saudi Arabia. The study is divided into two steps: first is actual flood mapping using remote sensing data, and the second is the flood volume calculation. Two Sentinel-1 images are processed to map the actual flood, i.e., image from 25 May 2018 (dry condition), and 24 November 2018 (peak flood condition). SNAP software is used for the flood mapping step. During SNAP processing, selecting the backscatter data representing the actual flood in an arid region is challenging. The dB range value from 7.23–14.22 is believed to represent the flood. In GIS software, the flood map result is converted into polygon to define the flood boundary. The flood boundary that is overlaid with Digital Elevation Map (DEM) is filled with the same elevation value. The Focal Statistics neighborhood method with three iterations is used to generate the flood surface elevation inside the flood boundary. The raster contains depth information is derived by subtraction of the flood surface elevation with DEM. Several steps are carried out to minimize the overcalculation outside the flood boundary. The flood volume can be derived by the multiplication of flood depth points with each cell size area. The flash flood volume in Al-Lith Watershed on 24 November 2018 is 155,507,439 m3. Validity checks are performed by comparing it with other studies, and the result shows that the number is reliable.

scholarly journals Flash-Flood Potential Assessment by Integrating the Remote Sensing Data and GIS with Reference to Adam Area, Western Saudi Arabia

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 78-84
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Flash Flood ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Curve Number ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Return Periods ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Gis Environment

Heavy rainstorms are common occurrences in the Western mountainous region of Saudi Arabia that results in hazardous floods damaging the infrastructure and development plans. Severe rainstorms and heavy showers cause instant flash floods that result in major damage of properties and loss of human lives. Therefore, it becomes crucial during the development planning that floods are accurately analyzed. For the calculation and spatial mapping of flood features, an integrated remote sensing and GIS methodology has been formed. This new methodology makes use of various landscape, metrological, geological, and land use datasets in a GIS environment by employing the technique of Curve Number (CN) of flood modeling for unrestricted dry catchments. The prediction of rainfall depths for 50 and 100-years are 73.6 and 82.3 mm respectively. 4.3679 and 8.0605 million cubic meters are the flood volumes for 50- and 100-year return periods. Moreover, the flood’s statistical data like the depth and volume of runoff is added in GIS layers’ attribute tables so that all results are collected in the same environment. The application of advanced methodology aids in providing exact estimations and digital results. Moreover, it is economical and can be re-operated in different circumstances as well.

scholarly journals Calibration of the depth invariant algorithm to monitor the tidal action of Rabigh City at the Red Sea Coast, Saudi Arabia

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1666-1678
Author(s):  
Mohammed H. Aljahdali ◽  
Mohamed Elhag
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Microwave Remote Sensing ◽  
Optical Data ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Sensing Data ◽  
The Mean

AbstractRabigh is a thriving coastal city located at the eastern bank of the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia. The city has suffered from shoreline destruction because of the invasive tidal action powered principally by the wind speed and direction over shallow waters. This study was carried out to calibrate the water column depth in the vicinity of Rabigh. Optical and microwave remote sensing data from the European Space Agency were collected over 2 years (2017–2018) along with the analog daily monitoring of tidal data collected from the marine station of Rabigh. Depth invariant index (DII) was implemented utilizing the optical data, while the Wind Field Estimation algorithm was implemented utilizing the microwave data. The findings of the current research emphasis on the oscillation behavior of the depth invariant mean values and the mean astronomical tides resulted in R2 of 0.75 and 0.79, respectively. Robust linear regression was established between the astronomical tide and the mean values of the normalized DII (R2 = 0.81). The findings also indicated that January had the strongest wind speed solidly correlated with the depth invariant values (R2 = 0.92). Therefore, decision-makers can depend on remote sensing data as an efficient tool to monitor natural phenomena and also to regulate human activities in fragile ecosystems.

scholarly journals Consideration of NDVI thematic changes in density analysis and floristic composition of Wadi Yalamlam, Saudi Arabia

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amal Y. Aldhebiani ◽  
Mohamed Elhag ◽  
Ahmad K. Hegazy ◽  
Hanaa K. Galal ◽  
Norah S. Mufareh
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Floristic Composition ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Shannon Index ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Main Stream

Abstract. Wadi Yalamlam is known as one of the significant wadis in the west of Saudi Arabia. It is a very important water source for the western region of the country. Thus, it supplies the holy places in Mecca and the surrounding areas with drinking water. The floristic composition of Wadi Yalamlam has not been comprehensively studied. For that reason, this work aimed to assess the wadi vegetation cover, life-form presence, chorotype, diversity, and community structure using temporal remote sensing data. Temporal datasets spanning 4 years were acquired from the Landsat 8 sensor in 2013 as an early acquisition and in 2017 as a late acquisition to estimate normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) changes. The wadi was divided into seven stands. Stands 7, 1, and 3 were the richest with the highest Shannon index values of 2.98, 2.69, and 2.64, respectively. On the other hand, stand 6 has the least plant biodiversity with a Shannon index of 1.8. The study also revealed the presence of 48 different plant species belonging to 24 families. Fabaceae (17 %) and Poaceae (13 %) were the main families that form most of the vegetation in the study area, while many families were represented by only 2 % of the vegetation of the wadi. NDVI analysis showed that the wadi suffers from various types of degradation of the vegetation cover along with the wadi main stream.

scholarly journals Optimization of Rain Gauge Networks for Arid Regions Based on Remote Sensing Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4243
Author(s):  
Mona Morsy ◽  
Ruhollah Taghizadeh-Mehrjardi ◽  
Silas Michaelides ◽  
Thomas Scholten ◽  
Peter Dietrich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arid Regions ◽  
Flash Flood ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Test Site ◽  
Rain Gauge ◽  
Cumulative Distribution ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Empirical Cumulative Distribution Function ◽  
Rain Gauges

Water depletion is a growing problem in the world’s arid and semi-arid areas, where groundwater is the primary source of fresh water. Accurate climatic data must be obtained to protect municipal water budgets. Unfortunately, the majority of these arid regions have a sparsely distributed number of rain gauges, which reduces the reliability of the spatio-temporal fields generated. The current research proposes a series of measures to address the problem of data scarcity, in particular regarding in-situ measurements of precipitation. Once the issue of improving the network of ground precipitation measurements is settled, this may pave the way for much-needed hydrological research on topics such as the spatiotemporal distribution of precipitation, flash flood prevention, and soil erosion reduction. In this study, a k-means cluster analysis is used to determine new locations for the rain gauge network at the Eastern side of the Gulf of Suez in Sinai. The clustering procedure adopted is based on integrating a digital elevation model obtained from The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM 90 × 90 m) and Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) for four rainy events. This procedure enabled the determination of the potential centroids for three different cluster sizes (3, 6, and 9). Subsequently, each number was tested using the Empirical Cumulative Distribution Function (ECDF) in an effort to determine the optimal one. However, all the tested centroids exhibited gaps in covering the whole range of elevations and precipitation of the test site. The nine centroids with the five existing rain gauges were used as a basis to calculate the error kriging. This procedure enabled decreasing the error by increasing the number of the proposed gauges. The resulting points were tested again by ECDF and this confirmed the optimum of thirty-one suggested additional gauges in covering the whole range of elevations and precipitation records at the study site.

scholarly journals Designating Appropriate Areas for Determining Potential Rainwater Harvesting in Arid Region Using a GIS-based Multi-criteria Decision Analysis ‏

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Abd-el-Kader ◽  
Ahmed Elfeky ◽  
Mohamed Saber ◽  
Maged AlHarbi ◽  
abed Alataway
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Decision Analysis ◽  
Rainwater Harvesting ◽  
Flash Flood ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Flash Floods ◽  
Flood Mitigation ◽  
Water Harvesting ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Analysis

Abstract Flash floods are highly devastating, however there is no effective management for their water in Saudi Arabia, therefore, it is crucial to adopt Rainfall Water Harvesting (RWH) techniques to mitigate the flash floods and manage the available water resources from the infrequent and rare rainfall storms. The goal of this study is to create a potential flood hazard map and a map of suitable locations for RWH in Wadi Nisah, Saudi Arabia for future water management and flood prevention plans and to identify potential areas for rainwater harvesting and dam construction for both a flood mitigation and water harvesting. This research was carried out using a spatiotemporal distributed model based on multi-criteria decision analysis by combining Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making tools (MCDM). The flood hazard mapping criteria were elevation, drainage density, slope, direct runoff depth at 50 years return period, Topographic witness index, and Curve Number, according to the Multi-criteria decision analysis, while the criteria for RWH were Slope, Land cover, Stream order, Lineaments density, and Average of annual max-24hr Rainfall. The weight of each criteria was estimated based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). In multi-criteria decision analysis, 21.55 % of the total area for Wadi Nisah was classified as extremely dangerous and dangerous; 65.29 % of the total area was classified as moderate; and 13.15 % of the total area was classified as safe and very safe in flash flood hazard classes. Only 15% of Wadi Nisah has a very high potentiality for RWH and 27.7%, 57.31% of the basin has a moderate and a low or extremely low potentiality of RWH, respectively. According to the developed RWH potentiality map, two possible dam sites were proposed. The maximum height of the proposed dams, which corresponded to the cross section of dam locations, ranged from 6.2 to 9 meters; the maximum width of dams ranged from 573.48 to 725 meters; the maximum storage capacity of reservoirs, which corresponded to the distribution of topographic conditions in the surrounding area, ranged from 3976104.499 m3 to 4328509.123 m3; and the maximum surface area of reservoirs ranged from 1268372.625 m2 to 1505825.676.14 m2. These results are highly important for the decision makers for not only flash flood mitigation but also water management in the study area.

Distribution of fluvial sediment yields in hyper-arid areas, exemplified by Nahal Nehushtan, Israel 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Armoza-Zvuloni ◽  
Yanai Shlomi ◽  
Itay Abadi ◽  
Rachamim Shem-Tov ◽  
Jonathan B. Laronne
Keyword(s):  
Sediment Yield ◽  
Flash Flood ◽  
Flood Frequency ◽  
Drainage Area ◽  
Stratigraphic Correlation ◽  
Rain Event ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Arid Areas ◽  
Fluvial Sediment ◽  
Sediment Yields

<p>Floods rarely occur in hyper-arid deserts and little is known about the magnitude and frequency of sediment delivery from their basins, despite their importance to changes to the landscape as well as to infrastructures and engineering activities. Sediment yield from the Nahal Nehushtan watershed (15.7 km<sup>2</sup>) located in the Timna Valley in southern Israel, was determined by assessing stratigraphic sections in its 60-year reservoir deposits. Stratigraphic correlation between event couplets allowed quantification of sediment yields representing 13 former flash-flood events. Based on the sediment volume in the reservoir, the 24.6 t km<sup>-2</sup> y<sup>-1</sup> average sediment yield is the lowest among other studied warm deserts. Among the event layers, five are voluminously small and seven are medium-sized. The thickest layer, deposited by a flash flood caused by a single short rain event, contributed 29% of the total sediment yield. This demonstrates the overarching effect of medium magnitude events on the rate of sediment production in a hyper-arid setting. Based on event reservoir sedimentation from watersheds located in several hyper-arid areas in the Middle East and North America, sediment load increases with drainage area as expected; however, sediment yield does not decrease with drainage area, as was shown for arid environments. Overall, mean annual sediment yield is very low and increases with flood frequency, with considerable variation generated by local characteristics. Our quantitative results together with previous studies of hyper-arid areas, provide complementary evidence of fluvial sediment transport - the main landscape designer in fluvial desert landscapes.</p>

scholarly journals RURAL FLASH-FLOOD BEHAVIOR IN GOUYAVE WATERSHED, GRENADA, CARIBBEAN ISLAND

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Rahmat Aris Pratomo ◽  
Victor Jetten ◽  
Dinand Alkema
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Flash Flood ◽  
Extreme Temperature ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Water Infiltration ◽  
Propagation Time ◽  
Caribbean Island ◽  
North West ◽  
Flood Depth ◽  
Land Use Types

Flash-flood is considered as one of the most common natural disasters in Grenada, a tropical small state island in Caribbean Island. Grenada has several areas which are susceptible to flooding. One of them is Gouyave town which is located in the north-west of Grenada. Its land-use types are highly dominated by green areas, especially in the upper-part of the region. The built-up areas can only be found in the lower-part of Gouyave watershed, near the coastal area. However, there were many land conversions from natural land-use types into built-up areas in the upper-part region. They affected the decrease of water infiltration and the increase of potential run-off, making these areas susceptible to flash-flood. In addition, it is also influenced by the phenomenon of climate change. Changes in extreme temperature increase higher potential of hurricanes or wind-storm, directly related to the potential escalation of flash-flood. To develop effective mitigation strategies, understanding the behavior of flash-flood is required. The purpose of this paper was to observe the behavior of flash-flood in Gouyave watershed in various return periods using OpenLISEM software. It was used to develop and analyse the flash-flood characteristics. The result showed that the climatic condition (rainfall intensity) and land-use are influential to the flash-flood event. Flash-flood occurs in 35 and 100 years return period. Flash-flood inundates Gouyave’s area in long duration, with below 1 m flood depth. The flood propagation time is slow. This condition is also influenced by the narrower and longer of Gouyave basin shape. To develop flash-flood reduction strategies, the overall understanding of flash-flood behavior is important. If the mitigation strategy is adapted to their behavior, the implementation will be more optimum.

scholarly journals Mapping Paleohydrologic Features in the Arid Areas of Saudi Arabia Using Remote-Sensing Data

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Abdelkareem ◽  
Fathy Abdalla ◽  
Samar Y. Mohamed ◽  
Farouk El-Baz
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Volcanic Activity ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Optical Remote Sensing ◽  
Alos Palsar ◽  
Sensing Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aeolian Deposits

At present, the Arabian Peninsula is one of the driest regions on Earth; however, this area experienced heavy rainfall in the past thousand years. During this period, catchments received substantial amounts of surface water and sustained vast networks of streams and paleolakes, which are currently inactive. The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array Type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data reveal paleohydrologic features buried under shallow aeolian deposits in many areas of the ad-Dawasir, Sahba, Rimah/Batin, and as-Sirhan wadis. Optical remote-sensing data support that the middle of the trans-peninsula Wadi Rimah/Batin, which extends for ~1200 km from the Arabian Shield to Kuwait and covers ~200,000 km2, is dammed by linear sand dunes formed by changes in climate conditions. Integrating Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Geo-Eye, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model, and ALOS/PALSAR data allowed for the characterization of paleodrainage reversals and diversions shaped by structural and volcanic activity. Evidence of streams abruptly shifting from one catchment to another is preserved in Wadi ad-Dawasir along the fault trace. Volcanic activity in the past few thousand years in northern Saudi Arabia has also changed the slope of the land and reversed drainage systems. Relics of earlier drainage directions are well maintained as paleoslopes and wide upstream patterns. This study found that paleohydrologic activity in Saudi Arabia is impacted by changes in climate and by structural and volcanic activity, resulting in changes to stream direction and activity. Overall, the integration of radar and optical remote-sensing data is significant for deciphering past hydrologic activity and for predicting potential water resource areas.

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