Spatial Modelling of Flood Risk and Flood Hazards: Societal Implications (GIScience and Geo-environmental Modelling)

Floods and flash floods with hydro-meteorological and tropical cyclones are the some of the most devastating natural disasters causing massive damages to natural and man-made features. Flood hazards are a major threat to human life, properties (agricultural area, yield production, building and homes) and infrastructures (bridges, roads, railways, urban infrastructures, etc). Flood hazards susceptibility mapping (risk assessment) and modelling is an essential step for early warning systems, emergency services, prevention and mitigation of future environmental and social hazards and implementation of risk management strategies. Due to the lack of proper information, technology-based policies and strategies, mapping and modelling can often not be implemented to the best possible level. Geo-spatial techniques have enjoyed rising interest in recent decades among the earth environmental and social sciences research communities for their powerful ability to solve and understand various complex problems and develop novel approaches toward sustainable earth and human society. 

By linking geo-spatial computational intelligence techniques with societal and environmental-oriented problems, this book demonstrates geospatial technology approaches to data mining techniques, data analysis, modelling, risk assessment and visualization and management strategies in different aspects of flood hazards. We believe that a diverse group of academics, scientists, geographers, hydrologist, remote sensing and GIS expertise, environmentalists, meteorologists and computing experts with a common interest in geospatial sciences within the earth environmental sciences and humanistic and social sciences will find this book to be of great value.

Prof. Dr. Biswajeet Pradhan is an internationally established scientist in the field of Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing and image processing, complex modelling/geo-computing, machine learning and soft-computing applications, natural hazards and environmental modelling and remote sensing of Earth observation. He is the Director of the Centre for Advanced Modelling and Geospatial Information Systems (CAMGIS) at the Faculty of Engineering and IT. He is also the distinguished professor at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is listed as the World’s most Highly Cited researcher by Clarivate Analytics Report in 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 as one of the world’s most influential mind. In 2019 and 2018, he has been awarded as World Class Professor by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Indonesia. He is a recipient of Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship from Germany. In 2011, he received his habilitation in “Remote Sensing” from Dresden University of Technology, Germany. Since February 2015, he is serving as “Ambassador Scientist” for Alexander Humboldt Foundation, Germany. Professor Pradhan has received 55 awards since 2006 in recognition of his excellence in teaching, service and research. Out of his more than 450 articles, more than 400 have been published in science citation index (SCI/SCIE) technical journals. He has written eight books and thirteen book chapters. He is the Associate Editor and Editorial Member in more than 8 ISI journals. Professor Pradhan has widely travelled abroad visiting more than 52 countries to present his research findings.

Dr Pravat Kumar Shit is an Assistant Professor at the PG Department of Geography, Raja N. L. Khan Women’s College (Autonomous), West Bengal, India. He received his M.Sc & Ph.D. degrees in Geography from Vidyasagar University and PG Diploma in Remote Sensing & GIS from Sambalpur University. His research interests include applied geomorphology, soil erosion, groundwater, forest resources, wetland ecosystem, environmental contaminants & pollution, and natural resources mapping & modelling. He has published 16 books (Springer-12, Elsevier-02, CRC Press-01 and other) and more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is currently Series Editor for the GIScience and Geo-environmental Modelling (GGM) book series published by Springer Nature. 

Dr Gouri Sankar Bhunia received Ph.D. from the University of Calcutta, India in 2015. His Ph.D. dissertation work focused on environmental control measures of infectious disease using Geospatial technology. His research interests include environmental modelling, risk assessment, natural resources mapping and modelling, data mining and information retrieval using Geospatial technology. Dr Bhunia is associate editor and on the editorial boards of three international journal in Health GIS and Geosciences. Dr. Bhunia has published more than 70 articles in various journals in Scopus indexed. He is currently Series Editor for the GIScience and Geo-environmental Modelling (GGM) book series published by Springer Nature. 

Dr. Partha Pratim Adhikary is a renowned scientist in the field of GIScience and simulation modeling. He is presently at ICAR – Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar, India. He has a brilliant career and experience of more than 15 years on research, teaching and training in the field of Spatial Variability, Soil and Water Conservation, Groundwater Pollution and Solute Transport Modelling. He has been bestowed with various scholarships, fellowships and awards by various scientific societies, universities and Government as recognition of his contribution to science and the society. He is the member of several national and state level professional scientific bodies. Dr Adhikary has more than 120 publications to his credit which include research papers in SCI journals, books, book chapters, popular articles, technology brochures, technical reports and bulletins etc. He is the associate editor of Indian Journal of Soil Conservation. Currently, he is Series Editor of Springer Nature book series GIScience and Geo-environmental Modelling. 

Hamid Reza Pourghasemi is an Associate Professor of Watershed Management Engineering in the College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Iran. He has a B.Sc. in Watershed Management Engineering from the University of Gorgan (2004), Iran; an M.Sc. in Watershed Management Engineering from Tarbiat Modares University (2008), Iran; and a PhD. in Watershed Management Engineering from the same University (Feb 2014). His main research interests are GIS-based spatial modeling using machine learning/data mining techniques in different fields such as landslide, flood, gully erosion, forest fire, land subsidence, species distribution modeling, and groundwater/hydrology. Also, Hamid Reza works on multi-criteria decision-making methods in natural resources and environment. He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed papers in high-quality journals and edited 3 books published with Springer and Elsevier. Also, he is an active reviewer for more than 60 international journals.