Assessing the Flooding Susceptibility in the Amuqin Watershed Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process Method

Knowledge of the flood discharge rate is of the utmost importance in water resources utilization and flooding damage mitigation studies. Therefore, the aim of the current research was mainly to assess the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to predict the flooding susceptibility of the Amughin Basin, located in the Province of Ardabil. The basin¢s area is approximately 78 km2. The curve number (CN) of the basin was found by integrating the land use maps with the soil hydrologic groups namely: B, C, D. The CN was estimated 78.7 the year for 2015. Different effective factors, namely: the slope percentage, land curvature, distance from the river, topographic wetness index, stream power index (SPI), and the CN were used in the application of the AHP method, and the effective layers were classified into nine classes. A flooding into susceptibility map was constructed and classified into five classes with very low, low, moderate, high, and very high susceptibility. The results indicated that the CN was the most prominent in flooding susceptibility; the distance to the river and the amount of rain occupied the next priorities. The lowest factor in the flooding susceptibility was related to the plan curvature. Moreover, the results indicated that about 0.64% and 4.4% of the study area were categorize with high and very low sensitivities, respectively.