A Preliminary Study to Detect Urban Changes and Its Relationship to the Flash Floods Disaster in Jeddah City

摘要

Jeddah is one of the most attractive cities in Saudi Arabia. The expansion of urban area becomes essential due to rapid population and housing demand. Many environmental and economic problems could be occurring in absence of correct spatial planning. In 2009 and 2011, many of people were killed and suffered from the flash flood disaster in Jeddah. The aim of this paper is to provide clear indicator for the change detection in the urban cover from the period of 1984 to 2014 in Jeddah. Also it indicates Cleary the relation between the urban expansion and flash flood hazards event. Change detection techniques was applied for Remote Sensing data and integrated into GIS environment. Change detection analysis shows that the urban areas increased from 170 to 390 km2. Urban expansion increased dramatically toward north and east. While it decreased towards south. Digital elevation model obtained from satellite image was used to extract watershed and stream networks. Drainages path way were blocked by residential area and contributed to flash flood occurrence. This study can be useful for future planning and for sustainable environment.