Advanced flood hazard zonation, risk profiling and Susceptibility mapping in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, using a Hybrid GloFAS-NASA DEM-MERIT HAND-socioeconomic vulnerability mapping Approach, validated using Sentinel-1 SAR in the Google Earth Engine computing environment.

James Ijioma Ndukwe

Flood incidents in Abuja, the Federal Capital of Nigeria, are one of the most frequently occurring natural disasters in recent times, which poses significant threat to lives, infrastructure and buildings in Urban and semi-urban districts of the city. Despite significant research effort geared towards flood susceptibility mapping globally, limited success has been achieved in the global south, due to scarcity of data, as well as low integration of observed inundation and exposure into a comprehensive framework. The GloFAS developed by the EU Joint Research Centre in alignment with the ECMWF and Copernicus CEMS aims to protect the globe, especially in data-scarce regions, from the adverse effects of extreme hydrological events like floods and droughts. This study is conducted to assess the best combination of JRC water layers, SAR flood extents and terrain variables that provides the most accurate hazard classification in the Study area, evaluate the significance of spatially driven susceptibility mapping models validated against GloFAS-driven event modelling in enhancing flood zonation, using GloFAS LISFLOOD data, and to investigate the dynamic impact of social vulnerability on flood risk severity by overlaying flood hotspots on physical hazard maps. This is undertaken, using a Hybrid GloFAS-NASA DEM-MERIT HAND-socioeconomic vulnerability mapping Approach, while validation is done using Sentinel-1 SAR in the Google Earth Engine computing environment.