Rapid assessment of the October 2020 Hyderabad urban flood and risk analysis using geospatial

The present study looks into the Hyderabad urban floods of October 2020 from a geospatial perspective. The spatial extent and severity of the flooding event for a part of the urban catchment (Zone-12) of Hyderabad city are modelled using HEC-RAS 1D–2D considering 13 October 2020 rainfall event. The study compares the present flooding to the previous flooding incidence which impacted Hyderabad, almost a decade back on 24 August 2000. The study shows that rapid unplanned urbanization ignoring the regional and local hydrological landscape has aggravated the flooding severity. The study highlights the fact that rapid, uncontrolled urbanization (16.5% increase) over the last two decades have substantially influenced the urban hydrology producing higher flood volumes for comparatively small rainfall event. Thus regulating urbanization, providing enhanced drain capacity, rejuvenating the water bodies and streams is need of an hour to check and reduce the spatial flooding extent.