The Role Of GIS For Flood Disaster Management (Santosa, PBS)

THE ROLE OF GIS FOR FLOOD DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Purnama Budi Santosa
Lecturer at Department of Geodetic and Geomatics Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta
e-mail : purnamabs@ugm.ac.id
Abstrak
Since the Aceh tsunami event on 26 Desember 2004 and the earthquake that struck Yogyakarta and
Central Java on 27 May 2006, disaster management term has become more popular. Many seminars and
conferences had been conducted to discuss disaster management issues form different perspective of
knowledge. This paper, of course, will also present the disaster management issue in a more specific area
that is flood disaster management and the role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for this application.
This paper illustrates on how significant role of GIS for managing flood disaster at different phases of
disaster management cycle. Case study location, the Mitchell catchment, which is located in Gippsland,
Victoria State, Australia, was chosen in this study because of the potential flood event that still exists in the
area every year. Finally, practical perspective on how GIS is used in the floodplain mapping tasks as well as
some recommendation for improving GIS functionalities in flood disaster management are presented at the
end of this paper.
Keywords: flood, GIS, disaster management

INTRODUCTION
Flood is a common natural disaster for
many countries in the world. Its devastating
nature makes flood being regarded as one of
the most devastating natural disaster and rank
second highest in causing loss of lives in the
US (Droegmeier et al, 2000). Flood poses
serious hazards to human populations in many
parts of the world and the economic damage
from floods has increased considerably. Due to
serious consequences resulting from floods,
managing flood disaster through appropriate
systems and tolls is necessarily required
especially to predict and evaluate possible
flood that may occur in a particular area. This
is mainly aimed at easing the potential damage
caused by flood.
The capability of GIS to collect, to
manage, to analyze and to visualize geospatial
data has made GIS as a powerful tool to solve
many problems that require geospatial data as
the main input data (Santosa, 2006a). In the
area of disaster management, many researchers
have been using GIS as a main tool to support
the process of flood disaster management
especially in the prevention, preparedness,
Pertemuan Ilmiah Tahunan III T. Geomatika ITS

relief and recovery phase. This paper tries to

illustrate the role of GIS in disaster
management especially for disaster prevention
and disaster preparedness activities. Study site
location is at Mitchell catchments in Gippsland
Australia, a place where flood is still a serious
threat to population.
FLOODS
Floods have been regarded as natural
and inevitable events that often occur in well
defined areas. Devin and Purcell (1983) define
a flood as the inundation of land which is not
normally covered by water, which generally
results from one or a combination of the
following phenomena: (1) Overflowing of
inland waters from riverine systems and/or
urban drainage systems. (2) Inundation from
the sea caused by storm tides or tsunami.
Gopakumar and James (2002) state that
in assessing flood problems, the rainfall
intensity and hydrology of the area are
important factors since a given amount of
rainfall in a given time may or may not result
in a flood. Floods vary greatly in intensity and
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The Role Of GIS For Flood Disaster Management (Santosa, PBS)

duration depending on storm patterns, drainage

basin characteristics, and other factors
(Hoggan, 1989). The nature of floods and their
impacts depend on both natural and humanmade
conditions
in
the
floodplain.
Furthermore, Noman and Nelson (2002) state
that since the floodplain carries flows in
excess of the channel capacity, as a result, the
greater the discharge, the greater the extent of
inundation.
GIS FOR FLOOD MODELING: REVIEW
ON ITS PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES
Modeling floods especially riverine
floods requires modeling the river. There are
two modeling tasks should be conducted here,
namely riverine topographic modeling (or the
shape of the river body) and the modeling of
the water extent in the river. According to
Noman and Nelson (2002), the data required
for river models are grouped into two classes:
hydraulic and topographic. Hydraulic data
consists of continuous measurement of such
things as discharge hydrographs, stage (or
water surface elevation), tidal records, spot
measurements of stage, continuous discharge
and velocity, and rating curves relating stage
to discharge. Topographic data describes the
geometry of the simulated river system. This
data is necessary to define, for example, width,
cross-sectional areas, and volume of inundated
floodplains. Furthermore, due to the broad
scope of topographic data, this data is divided
into two basic categories: qualitative and
quantitative. Qualitative data identifies the
physical conditions that determine flood
development patterns, and provides a
reconnaissance type of the river descriptions,
its tributaries, and inundated floodplains.
Quantitative data is needed for the model
representation of the river and its flooded
plains, for example cross section or transverse
profiles across the watercourse, and contour
imagery of the inundated area.
In relation to flood hazard modeling,
GIS has exhibited three principal advantages
for natural hazard mitigation and research.
First, the technology allows storage of the
information, which may prove invaluable in
Pertemuan Ilmiah Tahunan III T. Geomatika ITS

future situations. Secondly, GIS improves

information accessibility, and thirdly GIS
improves spatial and tabular data modeling. In
term of natural hazard studies, these GIS
capabilities significantly improve data display,
storage and retrieval, site selection, impact
assessment, and modeling.
Model-based flood forecasting is the
procedure of estimating floods by carrying out
forecast simulations. In particular, it is
required to predict the state of hydrometric
parameters such as water levels and river
flows at specified locations in a catchment
(Gopakumar and James, 2002). Other
approaches that have been recently developed
are the Two-Dimensional Inverse (TDI)
model, the Hydrological Recursive Model
(HRM), and the US EPAs Storm Water
Management Model (SWMM). The TDI
approach was presented by Sulzer et al (2002).
This method is used to estimate flood
discharges in complex river geometries based
on water level and surface velocity
measurement data by using an inverse
numerical model. In this method, discharges
are determined through the combination of
non-intrusive measurements of surface
velocities and water levels with a NavierStokes solver and an inverse optimization
algorithm, based on a vertical section along the
river axis. The HRM model is used in
particular for simulating daily mean discharges
using rainfall and potential evapotranspiration
as input. This method together with GIS was
used by Drogue et al (2002) for linear streamflow mapping. The SWMM was used by
Sekuler and Yingling (2001) for determining
flood elevations in the study for delineating
stream floodplain using 3-dimensional GIS.
The development of new methods
especially software packages which are
specifically designed for flood analysis have
been conducted by many scientists. This
development has significantly improved flood
analysis in terms of accuracy and ease. An
example of new software is MIKE 11
developed by the Danish Hydraulic Institute
(DHI). Researchers who have conducted flood
analysis using this software include Javan and
Shahrokhnia (2002), and Turan and Usul
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The Role Of GIS For Flood Disaster Management (Santosa, PBS)

(2002). Another software is FLOODFILL

which was used by Bach (1999) for river
inundation modeling. This software allows the
prediction of the extent and timing of an
inundation after an embankment breach.
The use of integrated system for
creating floodplain maps have been shown by
USGS (Jones, 2006). These maps give
information about when and where floodwater
from an approaching storm will arrive as well
as how deep the water is expected to be all
across the floodplain. A number of new
technologies and methods make the creation of
flood forecast maps possible. In this system,
accurate elevations throughout the floodplain
are extracted from "LIDAR" technology. The
simulation of flood flows across the floodplain
are conducted within a computer program
(TRIMR2D). Then, spatial analysis software
(GIS) is employed to turn the model results
into maps and overlays them on other maps,
like a map of a neighborhood, or even onto an
aerial photograph. Last is software (IMS) that
makes the maps available on the Internet in a
flexible and user-friendly way.
GIS AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Disaster is defined as the onset of an
extreme event causing profound damage or
loss as perceived by the afflicted people
(ESRI, 2006). A complete strategy for disaster
management is required to effectively reduce
the impact of natural disaster, which is as
referred to as disaster management cycle.
According to Baraji et al (2006), disaster
management is nothing but skillful ways and
methods of controlling a disaster. A complete
strategy for disaster management is required to
effectively reduce the impact of natural
disaster, which is referred to as disaster
management cycle. When we talk of effective
disaster management, a sequential series of
actions should be implemented.

Pertemuan Ilmiah Tahunan III T. Geomatika ITS

Figure 1. Disaster management cycle

(ESRI, 2006)
A bit different from the ESRIs disaster
management cycle, Pearson et al (1991) states
that disaster management consists two phases
that takes place before disaster occurs, namely
disaster prevention and disaster preparedness,
and a three phases that happens after the
occurrence of a disaster i.e. disaster relief,
rehabilitation and reconstruction. In disaster
prevention phase, GIS is used to manage the
large volume of data needed for the hazard and
risk assessment. In disaster preparedness phase
it is a tool for the planning of evacuation
routes, for the design of centers for emergency
operations, and for integration of satellite data
with other relevant data in the design of
disaster warning systems. In the disaster relief
phase, GIS is extremely useful in combination
with GPS in search and rescue operations in
areas that have been devastated and where it is
difficult to orientate. In the disaster
rehabilitation phase GIS is used to organize
the damage information and the post-disaster
census information, and in the evaluation of
sites for reconstruction. Hence, GIS is the
useful tool in disaster management if it is used
effectively and efficiently.
CASE STUDY: GIPPSLAND, VICTORIA
STATE, AUSTRALIA
The Mitchell River has been chosen as
the case study area. It is situated in the
Mitchell catchment in East Gippsland,
Victoria, Australia, as seen in Figure 2. This
river is the major river in the basin with many
tributaries in the upper reaches of the
catchment combining to form this river. This
catchment is bounded between longitude
146.70 E to 147.70 E and latitude -370 S to -380
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The Role Of GIS For Flood Disaster Management (Santosa, PBS)

S. This catchment has an approximate area of

4700 km2. Most part of this catchment, around
75%, is mountainous areas which are mostly
situated on the northern side of the catchment.
The remaining, around 25%, are mostly lower
land areas which are situated on the southern
side of the catchment. Two of the biggest
cities in this catchment namely Glenaladale
and Bairnsdale are located in this area.

Most of the settlements, as well as

farming and horticultural activities are also
located in the lower lands. These two cities are
still vulnerable to flood since there are still
potential flood to occur every year. For the
Mitchell River catchment, the April 1990
flood event was the third highest flood on
record after flood events on 1936 and 1893
(Bureau of Meteorology, 1992).

Figure 2: Study site location: Mitchell River catchment.

METHODOLOGY, RESULTS AND

DISCUSSION
Steps have been conducted in order to
produce maps of flood prediction. These steps
are grouped into three categories i.e. GIS data
development, performing flood modeling, and
flood maps generation and analysis. For this
purpose, several data namely spatial data
(digital terrain model (DTM), land use, and
river stream networks) as well as hydrological

Pertemuan Ilmiah Tahunan III T. Geomatika ITS

data such as river flows and boundary

conditions. Whereas, the software used in this
study are ArcViewGIS, HEC-RAS, and HECGeoRAS.
Results show that the important role of
GIS application for hydraulic flood modeling
has been demonstrated in this study. Generally
speaking, GIS in particular HEC-GeoRAS, has

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The Role Of GIS For Flood Disaster Management (Santosa, PBS)

shown its significant role in two areas. Firstly

GIS has demonstrated its role on GIS data
development prior to hydraulic modeling.
Secondly, GIS as a specialized mapping
software application, has shown its important
role in generating flood maps based on water
surface elevations resulted from hydraulic
modeling.
GIS has shown its powerful function
for developing spatial and tabular data prior to
hydraulic modeling, and generating flood
maps based on hydraulic results. However,
basic functionalities of GIS application are not
designed to perform flood modeling
applications. These specific functionalities of
ArcVIEW GIS software to perform flood
modeling application are possible because of
the development of a software tool to handle
these specific functions that has been
embedded into ArcVIEW. This specific tool
(namely HEC-GeoRAS) is implanted into
ArcVIEW as a program extension with the
main task of handling GIS data.
The HEC-GeoRAS functionalities are
beneficial in supporting the hydraulic method
in flood modeling. Stand alone hydraulic
software (for example HEC-RAS) actually
provides a geometric editing menu to develop
the geometric data necessary to perform
hydraulic
modeling.
However,
its
functionalities are not user friendly because it
is not designed to handle graphical or spatial
data. By applying GIS HEC-GeoRAS, these
limited functionalities are overcome. Themes
such as stream centerline, river banks,
flowpath centerlines, land use, and crosssection cutlines can be created and edited
easily and accurately in GIS environment. This
means that accuracy and efficiency of the
spatial data preparation process can be
achieved.
Furthermore, GIS functionalities in the
visualization and creation of maps especially
floodplain maps, are extremely beneficial for
flood modeling. The resulting floodplain maps
are beneficial and important for supporting
flood disaster prevention and preparedness
activities
by
distributing
these
information/maps to local communities.

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CONCLUSION
The role of GIS in disaster
management process has been presented in this
paper. The capabilities and functionalities of
GIS for handling geospatial data has regarded
GIS as important tool for managing flood
disaster, especially in the prevention and
preparedness phases. However, the use of GIS
for the study case has not demonstrated
complete GIS functionalities for this area of
application. The limited access of the author to
the data and instruments used in this study
makes this study was not done in and ideal
manner.
Some recommendation that can be
made for improving functionalities of GIS for
flood disaster managements are: involving
additional data for both spatial and non spatial
data, improving coordination and collaboration
between parties involved in the disaster
management, employing other relevant
techniques and instruments for data collection,
and upgrading to high-tech GIS systems such
as mobile mapping and monitoring emergency
in real time.
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Penulis Utama
Purnama

Budi Santosa, ST, M.AppSc.

Pendidikan S-1 diselesaikan di
Teknik Geodesi FT, Universitas
Gadjah Mada pada tahun 1996,
melanjutkan studi di Program
Magister Teknik Geofisika lulus
tahun 1995. Saat ini sebagai dosen
pada Teknik Geodesi FT,
Universitas Gadjah Mada.

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