Flood susceptibility analysis of the Panjkora Valley Northern Pakistan, using frequencyratio approach

Purpose Floods are considered as one of the most lethal natural disasters having the potential to cause havoc to entire communities. Pakistan is the land of wide topographic and climatic variations which make it vulnerable to floods. The purpose of this paper is to identify flood susceptible zones in the Panjkora Basin using frequency ratio model. Design/methodology/approach A total of seven parameters or flood conditioning factors were considered, and weights were assigned according to the frequency ratio technique. For the preparation of layers, satellite imageries and digital elevation model data were used. Frequency ratio was calculated using correlation between these parameters and flood. Flood susceptibility index map was divided into five zones through quantile method in ArcMap. Findings Findings of the study reveal that near half of the area (43%) is located in the very high susceptible zone, while only 20% area is classified as low to very low susceptible. Originality/value This paper is entirely based on original research. The approach used in this study has not been applied to the study area before.