ABSTRACT
The main objectives of the study are to analyze the flood occurrences and severity, to produce the hazard and vulnerability maps, and to create a flood risk map to study flood-prone. The flood causes death, property damage, and environmental deterioration. Flood hazards are more frequent in the Eastern region of Sri Lanka. For example, in 2010 about 144,561 families were affected in Batticaloa district. Primary and secondary data were used in the study. Primary data were collected through observation, discussions, and key informants’ interviews. Monthly rainfall data were collected from the Department of Meteorology for the stations, Rugam, Mylampavely, Unnichchai, and Batticaloa for the period from 1961-2020. The satellite data were obtained from Earth explorer, and Google Earth-pro. The past floods, affected people, irrigation tanks, and related information were obtained from the Divisional Secretariat Division and Irrigation Department. Spatial analysis and statistical techniques have been applied using ArcGIS 10.4 and SPSS software. Flood has been assessed by producing the flood hazard map, flood vulnerability map, and flood risk map in integration with various parameters such as rainfall distribution, standardized precipitation index, drainage density, river buffer zones, digital elevation model, slope map, past flood layer map, land use/land cover and population density map. The research findings revealed that the extreme flood occurred in 2015, 2011, 1994, and 1963. The severe flood prevailed in 2004 and 1961. The moderate flood occurred in 2019, 2016, 2019, 1999, 1984, 1967, 1966, 1965, and 1960. The results show that about 80380 persons are likely to be affected by the flood. About 17053 persons (19.3%) and 08 Grama Niladhari Divisions are in high-risk zones. Around 21.36% of the population (17171) belonging to the10 Grama Niladhari Divisions are in a moderate-risk zone. Low-risk areas include a population of about 59.29% (47658) which include 21 Grama Niladhari Divisions.
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