Flood impact assessment in Kota Bharu, Malaysia: a statistical analysis

• Main Authors: Mohammad Muqtada Ali Khan, Nor Ashikin Shaari, Arham Muchtar Achmad Nahar, Md. Azizul Baten, Dony Adriansyah Nazaruddin
• Format: Non-Indexed Article
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/7959/; http://www.idosi.org/wasj/wasj32%284%2914/16.pdf

Floods are common natural disaster occurring in most parts of the world. It is considered to be one of the weather-related natural disasters. The assessment of flood effects in urban areas requires the analysis of direct and indirect impacts. Direct impacts concern damages caused by the physical contact of floodwaters with commodities and are therefore related to the physical deterioration of such commodities. Indirect impacts are much more complex to deal with. They originate from inconveniences caused to the community by flooding events. Each household, with its specific social, economic and location characteristics suffer different flood impacts and react differently. The results are recorded in damage to human life and deterioration of environment. Recently, in the year 2006, 2007 and 2008 heavy monsoons rainfall have triggered floods along Malaysia's east coast as well as in different parts of the country. The hardest hit areas are along the east coast of peninsular Malaysia in the states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang. The flood cost nearly millions of dollars of property and many lives. This paper presents construction of a flood susceptible map for presumptive flood areas around at Kelantan river basin in Malaysia. An attribute database was also constructed from field investigations and historical flood areas reports for the study area. A questionnaire was developed based on the three stages effect of flood to people an environment which is primary, secondary and tertiary effect. One hundred and sixty questionnaires were distributed to the people at the study area and 85.63% of them stated that there are impact of every year flood to the community with 76.25% stated that the depth of flood is more than 1 meter.