Global assessment of population distribution in floodplain areas

Abstract:

Recent advances in Earth Observation research and technology has been allowing to produce increasingly accurate geospatial datasets of floodplain parameters. Floodplain extent zoning, generated with hydrodynamic and geomorphic paradigms, and high resolution population density and land cover features are nowadays available. In this work, we performed a global analysis of the distribution of population density aggregating results considering both administrative and geomorphic floodplain boundaries. A sensitivity analysis varying resolution, accuracy and dataset source was performed in order to understand opportunity and limitations of global floodplain-human distribution and density modelling approaches. Results show the relevance of floodplain developments along the secondary river networks. Moreover, interesting relations between population and land cover distributions are also assessed varying hydrologic and geomorphic properties of river valleys. Similar patterns of human settlement, varying the distances from the river network, were observed globally for the same stream order hierarchies.