Ghaggar River Flood Assessment

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATICS AND GEOSCIENCES
Volume 3, No 1, 2012
Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0
Research article
ISSN 0976 4380
Risk and vulnerability assessment of flood hazard in part of Ghaggar

Basin: A case study of Guhla block, Kaithal, Haryana, India
Surjit Singh Saini1, Kaushik. S.P2

1-Research Scholar, Department of Geography, Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra,
Haryana-136119
2- Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra,
Haryana-136119
saini.surjit@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The Ghaggar River in Haryana-Punjab plains, northern India presents a challenge in terms of
repeated flash flood hazard. Although a long history of flood control management in the
basin for more than 2 decades, the river continues to bring a lot of gloom through extensive
flooding. This paper reconsiders the flooding problem in the Ghaggar River basin and
presents an in-depth analysis of flood hydrology. We integrate the hydrological analysis with
a Geographic Information System (GIS) based flood risk mapping in the middle parts of the
basin. Typical hydrological and environmental characteristics of the study area include
drainage congestion, drainage confluence, very high discharge variability, gentle slope, and
agricultural practices. Besides, proximity to high slope of upper catchment area and
disturbance of natural drainage channels due to human intervention, are identified main
factors increasing vulnerability to flood hazard. Annual peak discharges often exceed the
mean annual flood and the low-lying areas of the alluvial plains are extensively inundated
year after year. The main objective of the study is to assess the risk and vulnerability based
on multi-criteria assessment. In this study Rank Sum method is used to calculate the weights
of factors contribute to flood hazard. Present study limited to environmental factors such as
hydrology, slope, soil type, drainage density, landform and land use/ land cover to propose a
Flood Risk Index (FRI). GIS techniques shown efficient role in the process of derivation,
integration, and analysis of spatial data. The approach resulted in three classes of flood risk
mapping ranging between low to high vulnerable area. GIS produced flood risk map is
validated with recent flood occurred in July 2010 inundation data collected from irrigation
department of the concerned district. Present study find out that GIS based long-term
inundation maps can offers a cost-effective solution for planning mitigation measures and
preparedness in flood prone areas.
Keywords: Flood Risk Analysis, Rank Sum Method, GIS
1. Introduction
Flood occurs in the Middle and lower Ghaggar river basin in Haryana and Punjab region
almost every year with variation in extent but the flood in September, 1988, July, 1993, July,
1995 and July, 2010 getting worse consecutively. These flood causes loss of lives, damages
to public and private properties and destruction of normal cultivating cycle. According to
daily flood situation report (provisional) produced by Disaster Management Division,
Ministry of Home Affairs, due to recent flood occurred in July, 2010, in Punjab 3.25 lakh
acres of Crop land damaged and about 3 lakh population of 763 villages mainly from district
Patiala, Sangrur and Mansa were affected. In Haryana over 4 lakh population from over 600
Submitted on May 2012 published on July 2012
42
Risk and vulnerability assessment of flood hazard in part of Ghaggar Basin: A case study of Guhla block,
Kaithal, Haryana, India
Surjit Singh Saini, Kaushik. S.P
villages primarily from district Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Fatehabad and Sirsa have been
affected due to floods. Nearly 3 lakh hectares of agricultural land have been inundated with
flood water .There were 51 persons died from both the states due to flood. Major impact of
flood has been observed in the middle and lower part of the Ghaggar River Basin, at the foot
of the steep slopes of the Shiwalik Hills of Himalaya. This situation, combined with the
heavy rainfalls common in the areas along the Ghaggar River makes this area to be frequently
affected by flash floods of the Ghaggar, Markanda, Tangri and some other small
watercourses. Due to an intense erosion of the riverbanks breaches occurs at several places
along the margins of the Ghaggar River and its tributaries. In the study area due to flood (July,
2010), Ghaggar Bund (embankment) which has been constructed parallel to Ghaggar River in
the left side of Ghaggar has breached at various places which caused damage to the crops and
village abaadi (settlement) area.
Parray (2006) studied that Ghaggar basin is also characterized with number of palaeochannels
which are the low-lying part of the alluvial plains within basin; hence they act as conduits and
become instrumental in carrying the floodwaters due to incessant rains. Some other low-lying
parts of the alluvial plains has also played role in bringing flashfloods. Human activities like
agriculture practices, settlements, construction of roads with inadequate culvert and the most
important drains and canals have changed the morphology of the natural drainage system of
plains and palaeochannels. These changes have also accelerated the occurrence of floods.
Moreover, the incompatible developmental activities or encroachment along these river
courses has narrowed their channels resultant capacity of discharge has been drastically
reduced. In consequence, the amount of rainfall that is necessary to cause a flood has been
decreasing during the last decades and several serious floods have occurred, causing a lot of
damage.
IPCC (2007) studies revealed that, there is no evidence that the trend will discontinue, and
the implications of global warming for increased hazard events fuel concern about future
flood disasters. There are also concerns about continued growth and development in
floodplains interfering with natural systems and ecological processes and highlighting that
human behavior is a contributor to the problem of flooding. In general, encroachments in the
form of unsustainable land uses and development practices may often make a sizeable
contribution to increase risk and vulnerability to floods. Ideally, the natural drains should
have been widened (similar to road widening for increased traffic) to accommodate the
higher flows of storm water. But on the contrary, there have been large scale encroachments
on the natural drains and the river flood plains. A significant part of this type of risk
assessment is dependent upon the use of science and technology for improved monitoring,
modeling/forecasting and decision-support systems. One way of improving the preparedness
for massive flooding is by setting up a vulnerability-based geospatial framework to generate
and analyses different scenarios. This will help in identifying and planning for the most
appropriate actions in a dynamic way to incorporate periodical changes that take place within
basin to mitigate the adverse impact of floods.
Sinha et al. (2008) have conducted a study on flood risk assessment in the part of Kosi River
basin, they have integrated hydrological with geomorphological, land cover, topographic and
social (population density) parameters using GIS to propose a Flood Risk Index (FRI). An
appropriate weightage or importance has been given to each parameters using Analytical
Hierarchical Approach (AHP). Based on this analysis a flood risk map has been developed
shown high, medium and low flood risk zones and developed flood risk map validated with
International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences
Volume 3 Issue 1, 2012
43
MODIS satellite imagery derived map. They have find out that with long-term inundation
maps can offers a cost-effective solution for planning mitigation measures in flood prone
areas
Present study is an attempt to generate flood risk and vulnerability map based on hydrological,
geomorphological and land use characteristics and validated with inundation data of flood
occurred in July, 2010 using Geoinformatics tools and techniques.
2. Study area
Guhla Administrative Block of Kaithal district have been taken as a study area, which
comprised of 104 villages with an area of about 560 sq.km. The study area is located between
29 51 49- 30 12 40 N latitude and 76 10 0 -76 29 10 E longitude. (Figure 1). Study
Area is a part of Ghaggar river basin and known as middle reach of Ghaggar River. Study
area has confluence point of major tributaries of Ghaggar i.e. Markanda, Tangri, Patialewali,
Para river in Haryana and Patialewali in Punjab which cause this zone comparatively high
vulnerable to frequent flood problem. The normal annual rainfall is 563 mm and about 85%
of annual rainfall contributed by south-west monsoon sets in from last week of June and
withdraws in end of September. July and August are the wettest months. Rest 15% rainfall is
received during non-monsoon period in the wake of western disturbances. Study area has
discharge outlet at Reduceable Distance (RD) no. 140000 near Tatiana village and
conveyance the surplus flood discharge (q) of Markanda, Tangri, Patialewali and Para river
catchment which comprised 7975.335 sq.km(40%) area of the total 20,000 sq.km of the
whole Ghaggar basin.
Study
Figure 1: Study Area

44
3. Database and methodology

One of the non-structural measures for flood risk reduction is considered the flood risk zone
mapping according to their vulnerability, it involves modeling the complex interaction of
river flow hydraulics with topographical and land use features of the floodplains.
Figure 2: Flowchart of methodology

In the present study a combination of different data sets such as morphologic, topographic,
satellite imagery, and census data (2001) obtained from concerned government agencies
(Table.1) have been used to compute a composite index of flood risk based on multiparametric analysis. The Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE) approach through Rank Sum
45
Method is used to identify the flood risk areas after assigned weights to each factor taken into
consideration as per their sensitivity. While conducted the present study following
methodology schematically shown in Figure 2 is adopted. GIS application is fully used for reproducing, analyzing and integrated spatial data to prepare a flood risk map which not only
defines the susceptibility of each settlement to inundation but also provides means for
assessment of flood risk in terms of loss of life, crop land and property.
Table: 1 Spatial Data and its Sources
Sr.
No
Type of Data
Sources
Topographic Map
Survey of India
Geomorphology
Published Report
Soil
Published Report
Slope
and Survey of India Toposheet
Drainage Density
Digitization of Drainage
Network
Digital
Model
Digitization of Contours
and spot heights
Population Data
Descriptions
Number 53C/4, 53C/5

Published Year 1972
Scale 1:50,000
Satellite Imagery
http://glcfapp.glcf.umd.edu web Satellite Name- Landsat 7
site of Global Land Cover TM, Acquired Date:
March, 2009,Spatial
Facilities, Earth Science
Resolution- 30m
Rainfall and Peak Tar Ghar, Irrigation Department,
Collected random data of
Discharge Data
Canal Colony Kaithal
rainfall discharge for 22
year from 1976-2010
Elevation Survey of India Toposheet

Census (2001)
Village wise population

and their characteristics
5. Result & discussion

5.1 Hydrological analysis
For hydrological analysis, data obtained from Telegraph Section in the Department of
Irrigation Kaithal, Haryana has been used corresponding to one gauge/discharge stations at
RD 140000 near Titiana Village (Figure 1). For the purpose of study 22 years annual peak
rainfall discharge data has been collected and analysed for the calculation of flood frequency
and return period (5years, 10 years and 20 years) to estimate the past flood occurrence and
their intensity.
Further insight to flood frequency is provided by the return period analysis using The most
efficient formula for computing plotting positions for unspecified distributions, now
commonly used for most sample data, is the Weibull equation: p= m/ n+1, where m is ranked
lowest to highest (Ascending), P is an estimate of the probability of values being equal to or
less the ranked value. For the probabilities expresses in percentages, the value of P becomes:
p= m/n+1x100.

46
Onni S. et.al (2007) compared Weibull, Gringorten and L-Moments formula for flood
frequency distribution of Sarawak river, Malaysia and found that L-moment method always
give the least ratio at some stations and gives unreasonable return period and reduced variate
range. Therefore, the appropriateness of L-moments with Gumbel distribution had some
limitations. They observed that between Weibull and Gringorten formula, Gumbel
distribution by Weibull formula is better than Gumbel distribution by Gringorten formula.
Weibull and Gringorten formula is still the best plotting position method to be used with
Gumbel distribution for frequency analysis.
Table: 2 Gauge vs Peak Discharge
Year
Gauge(Feet)
Peak discharge (Cumecs)or

(meter3/second)
1976
1981
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2008
2010
23.5
22.4
NA
28.5
NA
NA
NA
26.3
25.1
NA
NA
NA
30.4
25.1
27.1
24
25.2
NA
NA
25.6
24.6
NA
NA
27
24
27.5
1585
NA
1096
1841
735
654
NA
1680
1561
1286
NA
NA
2831
1561
1757
1467
1576
1331
1357
1605
1521
1278
1304
1748
1464
1796
Source: Irrigation Department Kaithal, Haryana

Table 2 shows a typical pattern of annual peak discharge for the period 1976- 2010 which
generally starts to peak in the month of July with the maximum in the month of
August/September. According to flood hydrology data of RD No 140000 (discharge/gauge
location), the Ghaggar river discharge holding capacity or gauge level is 22.0 feet (danger
mark) as water level crossed the danger mark water starts overflowing from the river banks
and create situation of flood in the immediate areas. Depending on the gauge level recorded
in the study area flood risk are classified according to intensity. The gauge level and flood
47
intensity is summarized in the Table3 & Table.4. Table no.5 reveals that the study area has
been affected four time (year 1976, 1981, 1996 and 2008) by low intensity flood and six time
( year 1988, 1989, 1994, 1997, 2000 & 2001) flood occurred of moderate intensity and in
year 1984, 1993, 1995, 2004 and year 2010 the study area challenged with high flood hazard.
Table 3: River Gauge vs. intensity of flood
Sr. no
1.
Gauge (feet)
22.0-24.0
Frequency
4
Intensity of Flood
Low flood
2.
3.
24.1-26.9
Above 27
6
5
Moderate flood
High Flood
Table 4: Flood frequency analysis

Discharge
(Cumecs)
1585
1096
1841
735
654
1680
1561
1286
2831
1561
1757
1467
1576
1331
1357
1605
1521
1278
1304
1748
1464
1796
Decending
order
2831
1841
1796
1757
1748
1680
1605
1585
1576
1561
1561
1521
1467
1464
1357
1331
1304
1286
1278
1096
735
654
Rank
(m)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
P= m/(n+1)
Probability
in Per cent
Return
Period
(1/P)
0.043
0.087
0.130
0.174
0.217
0.261
0.304
0.348
0.391
0.435
0.478
0.522
0.565
0.609
0.652
0.696
0.739
0.783
0.826
0.870
0.913
0.957
4.35
8.70
13.04
17.39
21.74
26.09
30.43
34.78
39.13
43.48
47.83
52.17
56.52
60.87
65.22
69.57
73.91
78.26
82.61
86.96
91.30
95.65
23.0
11.5
7.7
5.8
4.6
3.8
3.3
2.9
2.6
2.3
2.1
1.9
1.8
1.6
1.5
1.4
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.2
1.1
1.0
Table 5: Land use/ Land cover Pattern

Sr. No
1
2
3
4
5
6
Class
Crop Land
Built-up
Forest
Palaeo Channel
Waterbodies
Waste Land
Total
Area in sq.km
494.23
23.95
32.82
0.07
7.98
0.02
559.06
Per cent to total

88.40
4.28
5.87
0.01
1.43
0.00
100.00
Source: Landsat 7 TM imagery of year 2009 http://glcfapp.glcf.umd.edu

48
Figure 3: Frequency distribution and flood intensity
Figure 4: TM Landsat Satellite imagery of year 2009, 30 m resolution (path 147 and row
039) highlighted water bodies with combination of band 5,4,3
49
5.2 Multi-criteria analysis for risk and vulnerability assessment

Multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) methods have been applied in several studies. Since 80 per
cent of data used by decision makers is related geographically (Malczewski, 1999),
Geographical Information System (GIS) may provide more and better information about
decision making situations. GIS allows the decision maker to identify a list meeting a
predefined set of criteria with the overlay process (Heywood et al., 1993).In order to create
flood risk maps ranking method is used and each factor is weighted according to the
estimated significance for causing flooding.
Table: 6 Parameters and Weights
Parameters
Weight
Variables
5
Slope
Drainage Density
Landform
Land use /land cover
Soil Type
Sub-class of Parameters
0-30
30 - 60
60 - 90
90 120
> 120
584-730 meters/ sq.km
438-584 meters/sq.km
0-146 meter/sq.km
Flood Plain
Upland Alluvial Plain
Waterbodies
Palaeo Channel
Crop Land
Waste Land
Forest
Built-up
Loam
Rating
Level
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
Table: 7 Composite Index Calculations Using Rank Sum Method

Sr.n
o 1
2
3
4
5
Parameter of
Criteria
Slope
Drainage
Geomorphology
Land use
Soil
Sum
Inverse
Ranking
1
2
3
4
5
Weight
(n-rj+1)
5
4
3
2
1
15
Normalized
Weight
0.33(wj)
0.27
0.20
0.13
0.07
Criteria
Weight
(%)
33.33
26.67
20.00
13.33
6.67
100.00
The relative weight is applied to these factors. 1 is representing the most important
(Sensitive) factor and 6 is the least significance. Similarly, relative weight to each main factor
and their sub-class element is assigned and normalizing using rank sum method. Finally, a
composite flood risk index (FRI) is computed using weighted overlay analysis and raster
calculator in Arc GIS 9.3 software. The composite FRI values vary from Low100- to high
319.99 (Figure 5) thus obtained for the part of the Ghaggar river basin, the flood risk map is
further classified into low, medium, and high risk zones (Figure 5). Computed flood risk
50
analysis and produced map is validated with the list of villages inundated by recent flood
occurred in July 2010 in the study area collected from canal/irrigation department of district
headquarter. The resultant map of flood risk is matched about 95 per cent with inundated data.
Where wj is the normalized weight for the jth criterion, n is the number of criteria under
consideration (j=1, 2 n), rj is the rank position of the criterion. Each criterion is weighted
(n-rj+1) and then normalized by the sum of weights, that is, (n-rj+1).
Figure 5: Weighted Overlay Analysis using Raster Calculator in Arc GIS 9.3 Software to
developed Composite Flood Risk Map
51
Figure 6: Classified Map of Settlements Vulnerable to Flood Risk

Table 11: Vulnerability to flood hazard
Sr.No
Vulnerabilit
y
Class
Number of
Villages
Likely
to be
Affected
Total
Population
Likely
To be
Affected
Per cent of
Total
Population
Total SC
Population
Likely to
be Affected
SC
Population
Per cent of
Total
Population
1 Low
16
38186
24.96
9392
6.14
2 Moderate
43
69239
45.26
17029
11.13
45
104
45567
152992
29.78
100
13192
39613
8.62
25.89
3 High
Total
Table 11 reveals that about 25 per cent population residing in 16 villages vulnerable to low,
45 Per cent population belongs to 43 villages vulnerable to moderate and about 30 per cent
population part of 45 villages are vulnerable to high flood hazard risk.it is also revealed that
about 26 percent population of the total belong to scheduled cast likely to be affected by low,
moderate and high flood hazard in the study area.
5.3 Conclusion
The Ghaggar River in study area shows extreme variability in terms of flood magnitude and
frequency both spatially as well as temporally. Rainfall discharge data of one station, RD
140000 near Tatiana village, Guhla block, show that the river is extremely prone to flooding
due to merging of various main tributaries in the study area and here river channel capacity is
52
not enough to accommodate surplus flood water of other tributaries, resultant immediate
surrounding settlements flooded even sometime with normal rainfall condition.
This study presents the methods and techniques to assess and mapping the vulnerable area of
the flood hazard. This study has presented that hydrological data is not enough for the
assessment of flood hazard. Assessing flood hazard is a multi-dimensional problem.
Hydrological data can be meaningfully integrated with socioeconomic data to create a flood
hazard database. Such a database, when related to a map adds an additional dimension to its
functionality. This study has also shown how flood hazard related information can be
extracted from satellite imageries and synthesized with census data at village level to identify
the land use that are exposed to different degree of flood risk. Further integration of pre and
post flood satellite imageries and local knowledge into mapping process can make local
resident responsive and supportive. Thus, GIS mapping provide improved ways of presenting
vulnerability and hazard risk that can be applied at local levels. The flood vulnerability
analysis and mapping helps to planner, insurers and emergency services.it is a valuable tool
for assessing flood risk and preparedness to mitigate the impact of flood. The study fully
appraised the role of Geoinformatics in decision making process using GIS based flood
hazard zoning maps.
Acknowledgement
Authors are sincerely acknowledging the hydrological data provided by the Irrigation &
Canal Department Kaithal, Haryana and National Disaster Management Division Ministry of
Home Affairs for this study. Authors also thanks for sporadically technical and conceptual
suggestions provided by Dr. H.S. Mangat, Former Professor, Department of Geography,
Punjabi University Patiala, Punjab and the Faculty, Department of Geography, Kurukshetra
University Kurukshetra, Haryana.
6. References
1. Heywood. I, Oliver. J, and Tomlinson. S., (1993), Building an exploratory multi
criteria modeling environment for spatial decision support, International journal of
geographical information science, 7(4), pp 315-329.
2. India floods (1993), DHA-Geneva information report, no. 223.
3. IPCC, (2007), Climate change, synthesis report An assessment of the
intergovernmental panel on climate change, IPCC secretariat, World meteorological
organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
4. Malczewski, J., (1999), GIS and multiple-criteria decision analysis, New York, John
Wiley & Sons.
5. NDMA (2011), Flood situation report 2011, National disaster management division
ministry of home affairs, www.ndmindia.nic.in.
6. Onni S. Selaman, Salim Said and F.J. Putuhena., (2007), Flood frequency analysis for
Sarawak using Weibull, Gringorten and L-moments formula, Journal - The institution
of engineers, Malaysia, 68 (1), pp 1-9.

53
7. Parray, Khursheed Ahmad., (2006), Ground water studies with special reference to
Palaeochannels in Sangrur and adjoining areas, Punjab state India, Ph.D Thesis.
8. Sinha, R., G.V. Bapalu, G.V., Singh, L.K., and Rath, B., (2008), Flood risk analysis in
the Kosi River Basin, North Bihar using multi-parametric approach of AHP, Indian
Journal of remote sensing, 36, pp 293-307.

54

Ghaggar River Flood Assessment

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ghaggar River Flood Assessment

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATICS AND GEOSCIENCES

ISSN 0976 4380

Risk and vulnerability assessment of flood hazard in part of Ghaggar

Surjit Singh Saini1, Kaushik. S.P2

Submitted on May 2012 published on July 2012

Figure 1: Study Area

3. Database and methodology

Figure 2: Flowchart of methodology

Number 53C/4, 53C/5

Elevation Survey of India Toposheet

Village wise population

5. Result & discussion

International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences

Peak discharge (Cumecs)or

Source: Irrigation Department Kaithal, Haryana

Table 4: Flood frequency analysis

Table 5: Land use/ Land cover Pattern

Per cent to total

Source: Landsat 7 TM imagery of year 2009 http://glcfapp.glcf.umd.edu

Figure 3: Frequency distribution and flood intensity

5.2 Multi-criteria analysis for risk and vulnerability assessment

Land use /land cover

Table: 7 Composite Index Calculations Using Rank Sum Method

Figure 6: Classified Map of Settlements Vulnerable to Flood Risk

International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences

International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences

You might also like