Flood Susceptibility Mapping in Ghare Ghom watershed

Aims: Floods are among the primary natural hazards that cause economic and social damage. The Ghare Ghom watershed in Razavi Khorasan province is prone to dangerous floods due to its climatic conditions, topography, and physiographic features. Most rivers in the basin are seasonal, leading to occasi...

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Main Authors: Sima Pourhashemi, Kazem Aliabadi
Format: Article
Language:fas
Published: Hakim Sabzevari University 2025-08-01
Series:مطالعات جغرافیایی مناطق خشک
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Online Access:https://jargs.hsu.ac.ir/article_208145_382cd95441c4cf364e467932224e4f38.pdf
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author Sima Pourhashemi
Kazem Aliabadi
author_facet Sima Pourhashemi
Kazem Aliabadi
author_sort Sima Pourhashemi
collection DOAJ
description Aims: Floods are among the primary natural hazards that cause economic and social damage. The Ghare Ghom watershed in Razavi Khorasan province is prone to dangerous floods due to its climatic conditions, topography, and physiographic features. Most rivers in the basin are seasonal, leading to occasional severe flooding. This study assessed flood susceptibility mapping in this region.Materials & Methods: Machine learning models, including the Random Forest (RF) and Classification and Regression Tree (CART), were used for flood susceptibility mapping. Of the 117 recorded flood events, 70% were used for training and 30% for validation. Influential factors included land use, slope degree, geology, distance from river, digital elevation model, slope direction, geomorphology, soil type, plan and profile curvature, rainfall, and the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI). Model performance was evaluated using the Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) and the Tolerance Index.Findings: The RF model results show that distance from the river, rainfall, and altitude had the greatest impact on flood sensitivity. In the CART model, altitude, distance from the river, and rainfall were the most influential factors. The CART model classified the area into very low, low, medium, high, and very high susceptibility classes as 9%, 29.8%, 21.9%, 32.4%, and 6.9%, respectively. For the RF model, these values were 11.48%, 24.8%, 28.7%, 24%, and 11%.Conclusion: The Area Under the Curve (AUC) was 0.91 for the CART model and 0.87 for the RF model. The prediction rate was 0.88 for CART and 0.83 for RF. These results indicate that the CART model performed better than the RF model in predicting flood susceptibility.Innovation: Flood susceptibility mapping and identifying influential factors using machine learning are key contributions of this study. The results support planners and policymakers in managing flood risks and reducing future economic and social losses in the region.
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publisher Hakim Sabzevari University
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series مطالعات جغرافیایی مناطق خشک
spelling doaj-art-eef23c20107a4b9fb7a2daa1f84ecd7f2025-08-21T13:52:21ZfasHakim Sabzevari Universityمطالعات جغرافیایی مناطق خشک2228-71672981-19102025-08-01166018820310.22034/jargs.2024.478013.1142208145Flood Susceptibility Mapping in Ghare Ghom watershedSima Pourhashemi0Kazem Aliabadi1Research Center for Geoscience and Social Studies, Hakim Sabzevari University, IranResearch Center for Geoscience and Social Studies, Hakim Sabzevari University, IranAims: Floods are among the primary natural hazards that cause economic and social damage. The Ghare Ghom watershed in Razavi Khorasan province is prone to dangerous floods due to its climatic conditions, topography, and physiographic features. Most rivers in the basin are seasonal, leading to occasional severe flooding. This study assessed flood susceptibility mapping in this region.Materials & Methods: Machine learning models, including the Random Forest (RF) and Classification and Regression Tree (CART), were used for flood susceptibility mapping. Of the 117 recorded flood events, 70% were used for training and 30% for validation. Influential factors included land use, slope degree, geology, distance from river, digital elevation model, slope direction, geomorphology, soil type, plan and profile curvature, rainfall, and the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI). Model performance was evaluated using the Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) and the Tolerance Index.Findings: The RF model results show that distance from the river, rainfall, and altitude had the greatest impact on flood sensitivity. In the CART model, altitude, distance from the river, and rainfall were the most influential factors. The CART model classified the area into very low, low, medium, high, and very high susceptibility classes as 9%, 29.8%, 21.9%, 32.4%, and 6.9%, respectively. For the RF model, these values were 11.48%, 24.8%, 28.7%, 24%, and 11%.Conclusion: The Area Under the Curve (AUC) was 0.91 for the CART model and 0.87 for the RF model. The prediction rate was 0.88 for CART and 0.83 for RF. These results indicate that the CART model performed better than the RF model in predicting flood susceptibility.Innovation: Flood susceptibility mapping and identifying influential factors using machine learning are key contributions of this study. The results support planners and policymakers in managing flood risks and reducing future economic and social losses in the region.https://jargs.hsu.ac.ir/article_208145_382cd95441c4cf364e467932224e4f38.pdfflood susceptibility mappingcart modelrf modelghare ghom watershed
spellingShingle Sima Pourhashemi
Kazem Aliabadi
Flood Susceptibility Mapping in Ghare Ghom watershed
مطالعات جغرافیایی مناطق خشک
flood susceptibility mapping
cart model
rf model
ghare ghom watershed
title Flood Susceptibility Mapping in Ghare Ghom watershed
title_full Flood Susceptibility Mapping in Ghare Ghom watershed
title_fullStr Flood Susceptibility Mapping in Ghare Ghom watershed
title_full_unstemmed Flood Susceptibility Mapping in Ghare Ghom watershed
title_short Flood Susceptibility Mapping in Ghare Ghom watershed
title_sort flood susceptibility mapping in ghare ghom watershed
topic flood susceptibility mapping
cart model
rf model
ghare ghom watershed
url https://jargs.hsu.ac.ir/article_208145_382cd95441c4cf364e467932224e4f38.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT simapourhashemi floodsusceptibilitymappinginghareghomwatershed
AT kazemaliabadi floodsusceptibilitymappinginghareghomwatershed