Zoning of the sensitivity of the sub-basins of Nekarood basin to flooding, Neka-Mazandaran

Floods, as natural and unexpected events, have occurred frequently in recent decades. To reduce the damages caused by floods and flood management, it is mandatory to assess the possibility of danger and prepare maps of possible danger zones. In recent decades, many destructive floods have occurred in the Nakarod catchment. Because of this, to manage floods, reduce damages, and properly use water resources, the flood potential of the sub-basins of the Nakarod catchment has been studied. Neka River is 176 km long, and it is one of the important rivers of Mazandaran province and one of the catchments of the Caspian Sea. In this research, to prepare a map of the sensitivity of the sub-basins to the flood risk of the basin, 11 influencing parameters have been used, which includes elevation, slope, distance from drainage network, drainage density, flow accumulation, rainfall, land-use, geology, stream power index, topographic wetness index and curvature of the topography. The layers were weighted using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP); and eventually, by using the weighted linear combination method in ArcGIS software, the standardized layers were multiplied by the corresponding weight, and then the results of all the variables were added and accumulated together, and the final sensitivity map was divided into five classes. The results of the research indicate that flood sensitivity is different in the sub-basins of the Neka RiverAmong the effective environmental factors in flooding, the elevation and stream density were the most influential factors in the flood risk of the Neka catchment.