Evaluating the efficiency of Vikor, L-THIA and artificial neural network models in regional flood analysis (Case study: Khorasan Razavi province)

Considering the natural conditions of Iran, not paying attention to floods can cause irreparable damages, among which flood estimation and zoning of floodplain areas are very significant in controlling hazards, so zoning of climate change is necessary. The present study aims to investigate the risk of floods in selected basins of Khorasan Razavi using the VIKOR, L-THIA, and ANT models. Then, fourteen variables affecting the occurrence of floods including climate, land use, altitude, drainage density, geomorphological units, lithology, runoff height, permeability, slope and direction, distance to rivers/waterways, precipitation, temperature, and soil were used. The results showed that among the mentioned variables, climate parameters, land use, slope, drainage density, distance to rivers/waterways, precipitation, soil, and geomorphological units have greater effects on the occurrence of floods according to statistical calculations. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the results using various statistics showed that the L-THIA model, with a γ=0.8, had the highest correlation with the primary layers and was more accurate and efficient than the two VIKOR and ANT models in flood prediction.