Flood risk assessment in the Karamana river basin, Kerala, using HEC-RAS

Abstract

The State of Kerala has frequently been facing a series of flooding phenomena that have adversely affected its multiple sectoral growths. The floods of 2018 have happened to be one of the most devastating floods that have occurred in the State of Kerala. It was seen that nearly thirteen out of fourteen districts in Kerala were tremendously affected during the 2018 August floods. The worst affected districts during the 2018 floods were Trivandrum, Pathanamthitta, Idukki, Thrissur, Ernakulam, and Kottayam. A sub-region near the Karamana basin located in the Trivandrum district is considered for the present study. The Karamana sub-region is a highly urbanized area that is also more or less prone to intense riverine flooding. The major rivers—Karamana and Killi—along with their respective tributaries, are the water bodies in the study region. Extensive urbanization, along with the overflowing of rivers during monsoon seasons, has paved the way for intense flooding in the region. This, in turn, necessitates developing a flood model for the sub-region. The development of an efficient flood model will aid in understanding the future challenges related to a flooding event in a region. In this study, the flood return probability water levels for the 5-year, 10-year, 25-year, 50-year, 100-year, 250-year, and 500-year were estimated for the Karamana sub-region. Besides, the flood risk zoning for the study area was conducted and elaborated as very high risk, high risk, moderate risk, and low risk for the different areas of the sub-region. Overall, the study can be helpful in identifying the most vulnerable areas to flooding in the Karamana region. By the proper identification of vulnerable areas in the region, proper planning and early warning measures can be devised and carried out by policymakers.