Development of Climate-Based Index for Hydrologic Hazard Susceptibility

Abstract

An index has been developed for the assessment of geographical distribution of susceptibility to hydrological hazards using easily available climate data. Catastrophe fuzzy theory and data clustering methods were used to avoid subjectivity in the estimation of the index of multiple climate indicators. The proposed index was used for the estimation of geographical distribution of hydrological hazard susceptibility index (HHSI) in Peninsular Malaysia using gauge-based, gridded rainfall and temperature data for the period 1948–2010. The results showed that the northeast regions of Peninsular Malaysia are more susceptible to hydrological hazard, which matches very well with the general conception of the hydrological hazard susceptible zones. Assessment of susceptibility for sliding different 30-year periods between 1950 and 2010 revealed that HHSI has increased in the south and decreased in the northeast of the peninsula. The decrease in temporal and spatial variability of rainfall in the northeast and the increase in other parts can become the causes of spatial changes in hazard susceptibility. The changes of HHSI in recent years compared to the base period revealed the increase of hazard susceptibility in the south in the range of 8.81% to 21.01%, while a significant decrease (>−31.84%) was observed in the northeast.