Different Flooding Behaviors Due to Varied Urbanization Levels within River Basin: A Case Study from the Xiang River Basin, China

Abstract

Booming urbanization due to a fast-growing population results in more impervious areas, less infiltration, and hence greater flood peak and runoff. Clear understanding of flood responses in regions with different levels and expansions of urbanization is of great importance for regional urban planning. In this study, comparison of flooding responses to urbanization processes in terms of flood peak and runoff volume in the upper, middle, and lower Xiang River Basin (XRB), China, was carried out using the Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) model. From 2005 to 2015, urbanization level and intensity were higher in the lower XRB compared to the upper and middle XRB, and the overall expansion rate of urban areas was 112.8%. Modeling results by the HEC-HMS model indicate elevated flood peak discharges and volumes due to fast urbanization in the XRB from the 1980s to 2015. This rapid increase is particularly the case in the lower XRB. The study also revealed different hydrological responses of flood regimes—urbanization tends to have larger impacts on peak flood flow rather than on flood volume in the lower XRB, which further corroborated urbanization-induced intensifying flood processes in terms of peak flood flow. Urbanization has increasing impacts on flood volume from the upper to the lower XRB, which can be attributed to accumulated runoff down the river system. This study provides a reference for basin-wide land use and urban planning as well as flood hazard mitigation.

Keywords

Flood volume / Flooding processes / HEC-HMS / Peak flood flow / Urbanization level / Xiang River Basin / China

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