Flood Exposure Mapping and Social Vulnerability to Flood using Multi-Criteria Evaluation: A Case of Awash Fentale Woreda, Afar regional State, Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2021-11
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Recent evidence shows that flooding is one of the most common and severe hazards disrupting
people's lives and livelihoods in the world. Flood risk in Ethiopia is increasing both in intensity
and coverage, particularly in lowland areas crossed by major rivers. However, the effects of
flood disasters are not equal for every region, society, and community. Context-based studies on
social vulnerability are very essential to identify major driving factors and address vulnerable
people. It is the intention of this thesis to analyze spatial variations of social vulnerability driving
factors, vulnerable groups and its impact of the 2020 kirmet season flood in Awash Fentale
Woreda of Afar Regional State. GIS and remote sensing methods for exposure mapping trough
selected elements at risk, AHP methods of multi-criteria evaluations along with the survey result
used to identify, rank and weight the major drivers of social vulnerability, survey method was
used to identify the most socially vulnerable groups in the study area.
The result shows that the study area was exposed to the 2020 kirmet season flood with an impact
on land use, settlements, roads and populations. Housing structure, nearness to flood sites,
source of income, access to information about flood, access to evacuation centers, education
level, flood experience, access to road, access to health facilities, household compositions,
training on flood preventions and preparedness and support were the major driving factors of
vulnerability in the study area. From which the housing structure ranked as the most important
factor in contributing (15%) for households’ vulnerability to flooding, followed by nearness to
flood sites (13%). Households with dependent family members, live close to the major rivers, far
from the main road, not able to access basic amenities, evacuation center, transport services, no
social or PSNP assistance, receive less than 3,000 ETB mean monthly income, those depends on
weak livelihood base, no-flood related training, no flood experience, not able to get flood
information, as well as no formal educational background, are found to be the most vulnerable
groups in the study area.
The study result shows that the importance of a combined method of GIS, multi-criteria
evaluations and survey for identifying, weighting and ranking of driving factors for social
vulnerability to flooding. It also shows that context-specific nature of social vulnerability to
flooding
Description
Keywords
Flood, Social Vulnerability, GIS and Remote Sensing, AHP and MCE