On the contribution of Land use, Extreme Events, and Ocean Tidal Regime for Flooding events into a Brazilian Exorheic River Basin

Abstract

Abstract Floods are one of the most harmful natural disasters for humans and the intensification of rainfall and the increase in mean sea level caused by rising global temperatures can cause the occurrence of floods in coastal cities to emerge or worsen. Thus, the Reta do João XXIII region in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has recently suffered two floods, one in 2019 and another in 2020. To better understand what could be causing these phenomena, this paper aims to investigate the occurrence of floods in the urban area of Reta do João XXIII, located in the lower basins of the rivers Guandu and Guandu-Mirim. The methodological procedures were mainly based on the acquisition of data referring to precipitation records, ocean tide oscillations and other variables influencing the exorheic hydrographic basins. Furthermore, the Analytic Hierarchy Process method was fundamental to understanding the existing flood susceptibility in the research area and the execution of some calculations to determine the influence exerted by the oceanic tides in conjunction with the extreme rainfall records at the site.