Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

GIS-based flood proneness screening: a prelude to stormwater management in rapidly urbanizing catchments

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Frontiers of Earth Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Absence of reliable hydro-climatic information is among the bottlenecks for inadequate and improper management of stormwater runoff in rapidly-urbanizing catchments. This paper explores the influence of catchment heterogeneity in understanding the proneness of urban catchments to stormwater-borne hazards. Using GIS techniques, satellite images, and field surveys, geomorphological features and hydrologic characteristics of the Mbezi River catchment in Dar es Salaam-Tanzania were modeled to understand variations in their influence on flood hazards occurrence throughout the study catchment. The findings reveal that with GIS techniques public, domain Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) can provide preliminary but useful insights to inform stormwater management decisions in cities with limited hydrological data. Specifically, the heterogeneity characterization of the case study catchment indicates that Mbezi River is fern-leaf-shaped: it has a well-drained catchment (drainage density = 1.9 km/km2), with total relief and elongation ratios of 265 m and 0.25, respectively. Results further revealed that the catchment is comprised of many natural sinks (blue spots) that, upon enhancement, can retain about 18 percent of stormwater runoff that could otherwise contribute to downstream runoff challenges. About 68 percent of the major sinks (with potential volume > 2.4 m3) are located along the river flood plain where land is publicly owned. Additionally, more than 11.6 ha of land (as property) and 168 buildings are in areas that were mapped to have large natural sinks and they are at risk to flooding when the sinks get filled.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Apel H, Aronica G, Kreibich H, Thieken A (2009). Flood risk analyses—how detailed do we need to be? Nat Hazards, 49(1): 79–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baby S N, Arrowsmith C, Liu G J, Mitchell D, Al-Ansari N, Abbas N (2021). Finding areas at risk from floods in a downpour using the Lidar-based elevation model. J Civil Eng Archit

  • Ballesteros Cánovas J, Eguibar M, Bodoque J, Díez-Herrero A, Stoffel M, Gutiérrez-Pérez I (2011). Estimating flash flood discharge in an ungauged mountain catchment with 2D hydraulic models and dendrogeomorphic palaeostage indicators. Hydrol Processes, 25(6): 970–979

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balstrøm T, Crawford D (2018). Arc-Malstrøm: a 1D hydrologic screening method for stormwater assessments based on geometric networks. Comput Geosci, 116: 64–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betson R P (1964). What is watershed runoff? J Geophys Res, 69(8): 1541–1552

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beven K J (2011). Rainfall-Runoff Modelling: the Primer. New York: John Wiley & Sons

    Google Scholar 

  • Blöschl G (2005). Rainfall-runoff modeling of ungauged catchments. In: Anderson M G, ed. Encyclopedia of Hydrological Sciences. New York: John Wiley & Sons

    Google Scholar 

  • Chadha D K, Neupane B R(2011). Significance of Geomorphic Analysis of Watershed for Optimization of Recharge Structures. UNESCO

  • Chen J, Hill A A, Urbano L D (2009). A GIS-based model for urban flood inundation. J Hydrol (Amst), 373(1–2): 184–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Debo T N, Reese A (2003). Municipal Stormwater Management. CRC Press

  • Dhalla S, Zimmer C (2010). Landscape-Based Stormwater Managment Manual. Toronto: Toronto and Region Conservation Authority

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunne T, Whipple K X, Aubry B F (1995). Microtopography of hillslopes and initiation of channels by Horton overland flow. In: Costa J E, Miller A J, Potter K W, Wilcock P R, eds. Natural and Anthoropogenic Influenes in Fluvial Geomorphology. Geophys Monogr Am Geophys Un, 89: 27–44

  • Florinsky I, Skrypitsyna T, Luschikova O (2018). Comparative accuracy of the AW3D30 DSM, ASTER GDEM, and SRTM1 DEM: a case study on the Zaoksky testing ground, Central European Russia. Remote Sens Lett, 9(7): 706–714

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Francis R A (2012). Positioning urban rivers within urban ecology. Urban Ecosyst, 15(2): 285–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furze S, Ogilvie J, Arp P A (2017). Fusing digital elevation models to improve hydrological interpretations. J Geogr Inf Syst, 9(5): 558–575

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghimire B, Chen A S, Guidolin M, Keedwell E C, Djordjević S, Savić D A (2013). Formulation of a fast 2D urban pluvial flood model using a cellular automata approach. J Hydroinform, 15(3): 676–686

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gleyzer A, Denisyuk M, Rimmer A, Salingar Y (2004). A fast recursive gis algorithm for computing strahler stream order in braided and nonbraided networks 1. J Am Water Resour Assoc, 40(4): 937–946

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hewlett J D, Hibbert A R (1967). Factors affecting the response of small watersheds to precipitation in humid areas. Forest Hydrol, 1: 275–290

    Google Scholar 

  • Justin M G, Bergen J M, Emmanuel M S, Roderick K G (2018). Mapping the gap of water and erosion control measures in the rapidly urbanizing Mbezi river catchment of Dar es Salaam. Water, 10(1): 64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kherde R V (2016). Rainfall runoff modelling-modellers guide. Int J Appl Eng Res, 11(3): 1900–1907

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee S, Yigitcanlar T (2010). Sustainable urban stormwater management: water sensitive urban design perceptions, drivers and barriers. In: Yigitcanlar T, ed. Rethinking Sustainable Development: Urban Management, Engineering, and Design. IGI Global, Engineering Science Reference, 26–37

  • Makungo R, Odiyo J, Ndiritu J, Mwaka B (2010). Rainfall-runoff modelling approach for ungauged catchments: a case study of Nzhelele River sub-quaternary catchment. Phys Chem Earth Parts ABC, 35(13–14): 596–607

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason D C, Schumann G, Bates P (2011). Data utilization in flood inundation modelling. In: Pender G, Faulkner H, eds. Flood Risk Science and Management. New York: Wiley, 209–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Mato R M (2002). Groundwater Pollution in Urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Assessing Vulnerability and Protection Priorities. Dissertation for Doctoral Degree. Eindhoven: Eindhoven University of Technology

    Google Scholar 

  • Minea G (2013). Assessment of the flash flood potential of Bâsca River Catchment (Romania) based on physiographic factors. Cent Eur J Geosci, 5(3): 344–353

    Google Scholar 

  • Mjemah I C, Walraevens K (2015). Hydrogeological mapping and estimation of potential evapotranspiration and recharge rate of Quaternary sand aquifers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Int J Geomat Geosci, 6(2): 1539–1555

    Google Scholar 

  • Pallard B, Castellarin A, Montanari A (2009). A look at the links between drainage density and flood statistics. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci, 13(7): 1019–1029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Papasaika H, Kokiopoulou E, Baltsavias E, Schindler K, Kressner D (2011). Fusion of digital elevation models using sparse representations. In: ISPRS Conference on Photogrammetric Image Analysis. Berlin: Springer

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Parkinson J, Mark O (2005). Urban Stormwater Management in Developing Countries. IWA publishing

  • Saeedrashed Y, Guven A (2013). Estimation of geomorphological parameters of Lower Zab River-Basin by using GIS-based remotely sensed image. Water Resour Manage, 27(1): 209–219

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seo Y, Seo Y H, Kim Y O (2015). Behavior of a fully-looped drainage network and the corresponding dendritic networks. Water, 7(3): 1291–1305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siart C, Bubenzer O, Eitel B (2009). Combining digital elevation data (SRTM/ASTER), high resolution satellite imagery (Quickbird) and GIS for geomorphological mapping: a multi-component case study on Mediterranean karst in Central Crete. Geomorphology, 112(1–2): 106–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sivapalan M, Takeuchi K, Franks S, Gupta V, Karambiri H, Lakshmi V, Liang X, McDONNELL J J, Mendiondo E M, O’Connell P E, Oki T, Pomeroy J W, Schertzer D, Uhlenbrook S, Zehe E (2003). IAHS Decade on Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB), 2003–2012: shaping an exciting future for the hydrological sciences. Hydrol Sci J, 48(6): 857–880

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spence C (2010). A paradigm shift in hydrology: storage thresholds across scales influence catchment runoff generation. Geogr Compass, 4(7): 819–833

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tavares da Costa R, Mazzoli P, Bagli S (2019). Limitations posed by Free DEMs in watershed studies: the case of river Tanaro in Italy. Front Earth Sci, 7: 141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tetzlaff D, Carey S, Laudon H, McGuire K (2010). Catchment processes and heterogeneity at multiple scales—benchmarking observations, conceptualization and prediction. Hydrol Processes, 24(16): 2203–2208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tian Y, Lei S, Bian Z, Lu J, Zhang S, Fang J (2018). Improving the accuracy of open source digital elevation models with multi-scale fusion and a slope position-based linear regression method. Remote Sens, 10(12): 1861

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagener T, Wheater H, Gupta H V (2004). Rainfall-Runoff Modelling in Gauged and Ungauged Catchments. Singapore: World Scientific

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Weitman D, Weinberg A, Goo R (2009). Reducing stormwater costs through LID strategies and practices. In: She N, Char M, eds. Low Impact Development for Urban Ecosystem and Habitat Protection. In: Proceedings of the 2008 International Low Impact Development Conference

  • Zhang S, Pan B (2014). An urban storm-inundation simulation method based on GIS. J Hydrol (Amst), 517: 260–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Management, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, B201, Tanzania

    Given J. Mhina

  2. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, 1958, Denmark

    Marina B. Jensen & Thomas Balstrøm

Authors
  1. Given J. Mhina
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marina B. Jensen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Thomas Balstrøm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Given J. Mhina.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mhina, G.J., Jensen, M.B. & Balstrøm, T. GIS-based flood proneness screening: a prelude to stormwater management in rapidly urbanizing catchments. Front. Earth Sci. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-021-0924-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-021-0924-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation