Assessment of flood risk exposure for the Foshan-Zhongshan region in Guangdong province, China

• Main Authors: Zhang, Qi, Jian, Wei, Lo, Edmond Yat-Man
• Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Engineering::Environmental engineering; Urban flooding; HEC-HMS
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145904
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Floods have caused 20% of the worldwide economic losses resulting from catastrophe events over 2008 to 2018. In China, the annual flood economic losses have exceeded CNY 100 billion from 1990 to 2010, which is equivalent to 1% to 3% of China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This paper presents a rainfall-runoff model coupled with an inundation estimation to assess the flood risk for a basin within the Foshan-Zhongshan area of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in China. A Hydrologic Engineering Center’s Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) model was constructed for the crisscrossing river network in the study basin where the West and North Rivers meet, using publicly accessible meteorological, hydrological and topographical datasets. The developed model was used to analyze two recent flood events, that in July 2017 with large upstream river inflows, and in June 2018 with high local rainfall. Results were further used to develop the needed river rating curves within the basin. Two synthetic events that consider more severe meteorological and hydrological conditions were also analyzed. These results demonstrate the capability of the proposed model for quick assessment of potential flood inundation and the GDP exposure at risk within the economically important PRD region.