Geographic Information System for Flood Management in Greater Colombo Area

Nonstructural approach in flood management plays a major role in disaster management practice. This research paper focuses on flood management using GIS software which comes as a non-structural approach. Land use is essential ingredient in determining the flood plain area of the study area. Colombo as the highest populated city in Sri Lanka, there is a higher pressure on land for human settlement and related urban services. Increasing impervious area and reduction in retention areas due to rapid development has resulted in faster runoff. Thus, flooding has been one of the costliest disaster in terms of both property and human damage in this area. This research paper focuses on analyzing the changes in the land use in the area over the decade with the use of Arc GIS software. c-Hms software has been used for determining flood plain of the area flood risk map has been developed using the obtained results.