Mapping Urban Flood Resilience using GIS: A Case Study of Pune City, India

Rapid urbanization combined with changing rainfall patterns has significantly increased the frequency and intensity of urban flooding in Indian cities. Pune, located along the Mula–Mutha river system, has experienced recurrent flood events in recent years, highlighting the need for a comprehensive assessment of urban flood resilience. This study aims to develop a spatial Flood Resilience Index (FRI) for Pune City to support informed urban planning and infrastructure decision-making. A GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis framework is adopted to integrate physical, environmental, and socio-economic indicators influencing flood resilience. Key indicators include drainage density, road network density, land-use pattern, impervious surface extent, green cover, population density, and proximity to river channels. Indicator weights are derived using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), and all spatial layers are normalized and aggregated at the ward level using QGIS. The resulting Flood Resilience Index enables the classification of city wards into very low, low, moderate, high, and very high resilience categories. Preliminary results indicate significant spatial variability in flood resilience across Pune, with densely built-up and low-lying wards along river corridors exhibiting lower resilience levels. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of open-source GIS tools in developing an urban flood resilience assessment framework that can assist policymakers and city managers in prioritizing flood mitigation and resilience-enhancing interventions.

Keywords: Urban flooding, Flood resilience index, GIS, AHP, Pune City