TITLE:
Analytical Hierarchy (AHP) Process Method for Environmental Hazard Mapping for Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia
AUTHORS:
Ahmad Almodayan
KEYWORDS:
Flash Floods, GIS, AHP, Hazards, Jeddah
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.6 No.6,
June
29,
2018
ABSTRACT: The city of Jeddah, the second major city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
(KSA), was severely damaged on November 25, 2009. A deadly and costly
flash flood, which can be exacerbated in arid environments, occurred when
more than 90 millimetres (3.5 inches) of rain fell in just four hours. A national
disaster was declared. This extreme disaster has been a catalyst for attempts to
advance our understanding of flash flood events and how to appropriately respond
to their destructive nature. One-hundred and twenty people were
killed, around 350 others were reported missing and approximately four billion
Saudi riyals (one billion US dollars) of damage was caused. Considered to
be one of the great of Saudi’s cities, Jeddah is the economic capital of the
country. It is the largest coastal town on the west coast, with a population of
about 5.1 million and an estimated area of 5460 square kilometres. Based on
its rapid urbanisation and population growth, a function of a multitude of parameters,
a multi-criterion analysis using AHP and GIS was performed to
comprehensively evaluate the environmental quality of the different municipal
wards affected by Jeddah’s flash floods. This research presents an analysis
of the different factors that caused these flash flood events. The results indicate
that the causes of these floods are related to a number of factors that significantly
contribute to the worsening of flood disasters.