Flood Susceptibility Mapping and Accuracy Assesment of a River Floodplain Using Bivariate Statistical Methods and AHP Approach

Over the recent decades, the world has witnessed frequent and devastating flood events with loss of life and property. The focus of this present study is the Panchaganga River basin (PRB) in the state of Maharashtra, India, chosen as the site for flood susceptibility mapping (FSM). Various models, including the frequency ratio (FR), weight of evidence (WoE), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), and an FA model (ensemble of FR & AHP), were employed for this purpose. To facilitate the study, a comprehensive flood inventory comprising 200 historical flood locations was prepared. The 75 % samples were selected for training and 25 % for testing of the model. The FSM was generated and categorized into five zones namely, very high, high, moderate, low, and no risk zones through the application of ArcGIS software. ROC curves were plotted for validation purpose with AUC values of of 93.6 %, 91.6 %, and 95.5 % for the FR, WoE and FA model respectively. This study provides valuable insights for residents living near the Panchaganga River, aiding them in relocating to safer areas during flooding events. Additionally, farmers in the PRB can employ this information to mitigate various losses resulting from flood disasters.