Floods are a recurrent natural disaster in Uttara Kannada, primarily due to the
region's notably high annual rainfall. This study aims to create flood susceptibility maps
for selected subbasins of Kali River, Karwar taluk of Uttara Kannada district by
combining remote sensing data, GIS and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods.
Karwar and Kadra areas were identified as one of the districts most vulnerable to
flooding in Uttara Kannada. The objective of generating these maps is to enhance
awareness about flood risks. Various factors have been chosen as inputs, including
elevation, slope, distance from the river, rainfall, flow accumulation, stream density, soil
types, water ratio index, land use/land cover, topographic wetness index and stream
power index. The final flood susceptibility maps are categorized into five zones ranging
from very low to very high. The prevalence of floods in the study area can be attributed
to factors such as increased silting, human-induced reduction in stream width,
alterations in land cover and land-use patterns, gentle slopes, elevated soil moisture
levels, diminished stream capacity and inadequate soil infiltration capabilities. The
accuracy of the prepared map was assessed using the receiver operating characteristic
(ROC) curve technique. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of 0.829 obtained
for the AHP method are deemed acceptable and very good. This confirms the predictive
capability of the generated map. The highly susceptible zone encompasses
approximately 14.87% of the entire study area. This map offers valuable insights for
urban planners and policymakers, aiding them in devising strategies to mitigate the
impact of future flood hazards and minimize damages.