Knowing the location and the extent of areas exposed to floods is the most basic information needed for planning flood management strategies. Unfortunately, a complete identification of these areas is still lacking in many countries. Recent studies have highlighted that a significant amount of information regarding the inundation process is already contained in the structure and morphology of a river basin. Therefore, several geomorphic approaches have been proposed for the delineation of areas exposed to flood inundation using DEMs. Such DEM-based approaches represent a useful tool, characterized by low cost and simple data requirements, for a preliminary identification of the flood-prone areas or to extend flood hazard mapping over large areas. Moreover, geomorphic information may be used as external constraint in remote-sensing algorithms for the identification of inundated areas during or after a flood event.
How to cite: Salvatore Manfreda, Caterina Samela and Tara J. Troy, The Use of DEM-Based Approaches to Derive a Priori Information on Flood-Prone Areas, Springer International Publishing AG 2018, Pages 61 – 79, (doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63959-8_3), 2018. [pdf]