Flood vulnerability assessment of the Upper Jhelum Basin using HEC-HMS model

Abstract

The five watersheds of the Upper Jhelum Basin (UJB) in the Kashmir Himalaya, India has flood prone hydrographic features resulting in high-frequency of flooding in the basin. With this in mind, HEC-HMS was calibrated to estimate excess-runoff potential of five watersheds and the model results showed a good agreement with the observed streamflow. The study revealed that due to the presence of rocky-outcrops, precipitous-topography and impervious-surfaces, Vishav, Lidder and Sandran are the major contributors of the excess-runoff among the 5 watersheds as compared to Bringi and Kuthar. For the model-efficacy, the excess-runoff potential and the social-vulnerability of the region were compared to the floodwater-depth observed during the 2014-flooding event. The comparison reveals that the flood-vulnerability assessment of the UJB are well corroborated by the observed floodwater levels and the Vishav watershed is most vulnerable. The findings of this study are expected to inform flood management plans in the UJB.

Keywords:

• Upper Jhelum Basin (UJB)
• Hydrologic Engineering Centre’s Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS)
• Land Use and Land Cover (LULC)
• watershed
• climate
• runoff potential
• flood vulnerability

Acknowledgements

The research was carried out with the help of grants from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India under the National Mission on Himalayan Studies (NMHS). For the sponsored research project titled ‘Integrated System dynamical model to design and Testing Alternative intervention strategies for Effective Remediation & Sustainable water Management for two selected river basins of Indian Himalaya’. The financial assistance received from the Ministry under the project is thankfully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author statement

Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Supervision, Manuscript preparation with inputs from SA: SAR; Data curation, Data Analysis, Investigation, Manuscript preparation: SA.

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.