Mohammad Ali Nezammahalleh - Physical Geography Department, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, P.O.Box: ۱۴۱۷۸۵۳۹۳۳, Enqlab Ave., Tehran, Iran
Mojtaba Yamani - Physical Geography Department, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, P.O.Box: ۱۴۱۷۸۵۳۹۳۳, Enqlab Ave., Tehran, Iran
Abolghassem Goorabi - Physical Geography Department, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, P.O.Box: ۱۴۱۷۸۵۳۹۳۳, Enqlab Ave., Tehran, Iran
Mehran Maghsoudi - Physical Geography Department, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, P.O.Box: ۱۴۱۷۸۵۳۹۳۳, Enqlab Ave., Tehran, Iran

Most of the human societies are experiencing increasing losses of flood hazard each year. Flood inundation mapping is useful for flood mitigation and risk reduction. To detect flood inundation areas, a novel GIS-based model has been developed in the present work. This model makes it possible to calculate the height difference of floodplain surfaces from riverbed by the use of terrain data and hydrometric statistics. The output of the model disregards the mountain topography and represents the local terrain of the floodplain. The output along with the peak discharge by Creager model has been applied for the inundation mapping. The estimated values of the model and observed values have a RMSE of 2.58. The results showed a significant difference, at 95% confidence interval, between the flooded and non-flooded villages in the height differences. It can be concluded that the rural settlements lower in height are more at risk of flooding.

Floodplain Height Difference, flood inundation, GIS-based model, Rudbar