Architectural Strategies for Flood Mitigation in Urban Environments: A Study of Traditional Elements and Contemporary Resilience

Natural disasters cause extensive losses worldwide annually. Flood events are responsible for economic and life-threatening damages1. To mitigate flood risks and resulting damages, particularly in the construction of residential buildings, two approaches exist. First: constructing in areas with lower flood susceptibility, and second: implementing architectural solutions to fortify structures against floods and associated hazards. Due to the presence of water resources, rivers, etc., prompting urban expansion due to reasons like transportation, trade, agricultural use, household consumption, etc., construction near rivers and flood-prone areas becomes inevitable2. This underscores the importance of the second approacharchitectural fortification. In this study, areas highly susceptible to flooding were identified from flood zoning maps using artificial intelligence to adapt these maps and estimate the most hazardous regions3. Subsequently, by examining the specific elements of traditional architecture in each of these areas and exploring the cause and function of each element in facing floods over time, attention is given to the particular and regional (indigenous) architectural features that have responded to floods. Finally, appropriate architectural measures and responses to reduce flood risks, such as constructing at elevation or suitable gradients, is combined with early warning systems to provide a proper route for the future construction projects. Keywords: Flood forecasting; Flood prone areas; Architectural fortification 1 Naghedi, S.R., Huang, X. and Gheibi, M., 2023.A smart dashboard for forecasting disaster casualties: An investigation from sustainable development dimensions(No. EGU23-17237). Copernicus Meetings. 2 Yan, J., Naghedi, R., Huang, X., Wang, S., Lu, J. and Xu, Y., 2023. Evaluating simulated visible greenness in urban landscapes: An examination of a midsize US city.Urban Forestry Urban Greening,87, p.128060. 3 Vahid, R., Farnood Ahmadi, F., Mohammadi, N. (2021). Earthquake damage modeling using cellular automata and fuzzy rule-based models.Arabian Journal of Geosciences,14, 1-14.