ABSTRACT
Flooding caused by excessive rainfall is a frequently occurring and widely reported disaster. This study aims to provide expertise in creating flood risk maps that can be used by the public and in estimating the probability of flooding in rapidly expanding urban areas. In the Etsako Central study area of Benin City, Nigeria, the Geographic Information System (GIS) analytic technique is used to model and estimate the extent of flood risk zones. The project required fundamental datasets, including cloud-free high-resolution satellite images, SRTM DEM data, FAO soil data, rainfall data, and more. Using these datasets, maps of floodenhancing elements, like flood risk vulnerability mapping, were created with Geographic Information Systems. This technique includes rainfall distribution, elevation and slope, drainage network and density, land use/land cover, and soil type, among other elements that contribute to floods. The maps were created using the same scale of 1:250,000 and geographic coordinate system (Minna UTM zone 32N). The research found soil type and rainfall to be significant factors contributing to floods in Etsako central municipality, Benin City. From final results of the flood risk map generated using ArcGIS, it can be seen that the area south of the study area, marked as “very high” in fig. 4.8 have a higher vulnerability to flooding than other areas. These areas are at the highest risk of experiencing severe flooding. Conversely, areas toward the northern part of the study area, marked as “very low” are less vulnerable compared to the southern region. These areas have a minimal risk of flooding.
