Flooding is considered one of the disastrous natural hazards that can inflict significant damage to lives, the environment, infrastructure, and public services. With the increased magnitude and occurrence of floods, a paradigm shift in flood risk-management strategies has been observed from structural interventions to a multi-faceted resilience-oriented approach. The need is to apprehend the perception of vulnerable populations for effective social resilience, risk communication, and coping capacity. This study aims to quantify the community's risk perception by applying a contemporary approach, i.e., cognitive mapping. A survey was conducted in rural communities of Muzaffargarh, Pakistan, where four union councils were further selected for the survey. The selection criteria included past experience with the 2010 floods and proximity to rivers. Yamane sampling technique was used to determine the required sample size, and 365 respondents were involved in outlining their 2010 flood memories. GIS was used for the visualization and conversion of these delineations into vector data. Based on the community's perception, scoring and Kernel density were applied to rank each settlement and to show the perceived spatial extent of the 2010 flood. These cognitive maps were then assessed based on age groups and proximity to the source of risk. Results show that the spatial extent of the flood perceived by the older age group was comparatively higher. Similarly, households living far away from rivers tend to perceive a larger spatial extent of flood risk. This study proposes cognitive mapping as a potential method for assessing flood risk perception.
Rasool, S; Rana, IA; Arshad, HSH
Assessing the perceived spatial extent of a flood using cognitive mapping: a case study of rural communities along Indus and Chenab Rivers, Pakistan
Modeling Earth Systems And Environment