Geospatial Modelling of Tista River Flood Hazard and Its Impact on the Riparian Inhabitants in Eastern India

FloodsFlood areGeospatial considered the most potent yearly natural calamity in the eastern Indian Sub-Himalayan foothills, causing significant damage to the socio-economicSocio-economic well-being of the local inhabitants. Therefore, the present study integrated Geographic Information SystemGeographic Information System (GIS) (GIS) and Analytical Hierarchical ProcessAnalytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) approach to assess the floodFlood susceptibilitySusceptibility mapping of the riparian villagesRiparian villages along the Tista River. Besides this, the socio-economicSocio-economic losses of the inhabitants have been assessed based on historical records. The produced flood susceptibilitySusceptibility map of the study area demonstrated that the very high and high flood area covers 14.06% and 21.02% of the total area, respectively, which indicates that the area is at a high risk of flooding. The AUC of the flood susceptibilitySusceptibility modelModels is 0.79, which means the model has a good level of accuracy in distinguishing between flood-prone and non-flood-prone areas. The high degree of precipitationPrecipitation, socio-economicSocio-economic background of the inhabitants, inadequate means of subsistence, poor healthcare, lack of awareness, flooding nature, and river channel migration behaviour are the primary drivers of higher floodFlood susceptibilitySusceptibility of the riparian villagesRiparian villages of the Tista River. Therefore, this type of study effectively discusses the function of GIS in constructing the area’s flood susceptibilitySusceptibility and the effectiveness of the corresponding modelsModels.