GFA – tool is an open-source QGIS plug-in to realize a fast and cost-effective delineation of the floodplains in the contexts where the available data is scarce to carry out hydrological/hydraulic analyses.
The delineation of flood hazard and flood risk areas is a critical issue whose complete achievement regularly encounters several practical difficulties. In data-scarce environments (e.g. ungauged basins, large-scale analyses), useful information about flood hazard exposure can be obtained using geomorphic methods. In order to advance this field of research, we implemented in the QGIS environment an automated DEM-based procedure that exhibited high accuracy and reliability in identifying the flood-prone areas in several test sites located in Europe, United States and Africa. This tool, named Geomorphic Flood Area tool (GFA tool), enables a fast and cost-effective flood mapping by performing a linear binary classification based on the recently proposed Geomorphic Flood Index (GFI). The GFA tool provides a user-friendly strategy to map flood exposure over large areas.
References:
Samela, C., R. Albano, A. Sole, S. Manfreda, An open source GIS software tool for cost effective delineation of flood prone areas, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 70, 43-52 (doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2018.01.013), 2018. [pdf]
Samela, C., T.J. Troy, S. Manfreda, Geomorphic classifiers for flood-prone areas delineation for data-scarce environments, Advances in Water Resources, 102, 13-28, (doi: 10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.01.007), 2017. [pdf]
Manfreda, S., C. Samela, A. Gioia, G. Consoli, V. Iacobellis, L. Giuzio, A. Cantisani, A. Sole, Flood-Prone Areas Assessment Using Linear Binary Classifiers based on flood maps obtained from 1D and 2D hydraulic models, Natural Hazards, 79 (2), 735-754, (doi: 10.1007/s11069-015-1869-5), 2015. [pdf]
Manfreda, S., F. Nardi, C. Samela, S. Grimaldi, A. C. Taramasso, G. Roth and A. Sole, Investigation on the Use of Geomorphic Approaches for the Delineation of Flood Prone Areas, Journal of Hydrology, 517, 863-876, (doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.06.009), 2014.
QGIS Python Plugins Repository
