Spatial Analysis of Flood Risk with the Approach of Landuse Planning and Management in Urmia City

Floods are one of the most important natural hazards on earth. The purpose of this study was to prepare a flood hazard map in Urmia city and identify vulnerable areas. In order to prepare the  flood hazard map of quantitative-explanatory study, 9 factors affecting the occurrence of this phenomenon were used, including elevation, slope, aspect, distance from the river, watercourse density, lithology, land use, precipitation and Topographic Wetness Index (TWI). To prepare information layers from ArcGIS and ENVI software and to weight the factors and determine the most important factor, analytic network process (ANP) was used. The weighting results of the factors showed that the two factors of slope and distance from the river have the highest weighting coefficients of 0.219 and 0.177, respectively, in the occurrence of floods in the region. Finally, by applying the weights of each of the factors, a flood hazard map was prepared. The final map showed that about 43.7% of the total area of ​​the studied area is in high and very high classes in terms of flood hazard. These parts mostly include the vicinity of the secondary and main waterways that flow in the city. Failure to pay attention to hydrogeomorphological considerations such as encroaching on the legal boundaries of rivers and illegal constructions in their vicinity has increased the hazard of flooding in these parts. Behdari town and Beit al-Moghadad, Saadi and Roudaki, Shahed and Shahryar town, Sad Metri Street, and Golshahr are among these areas.