Haiti is a densely populated country that frequently lies in the path of major hurricanes,
and thus constitutes a critical region for effective flood risk management policies to be
developed. Recent catastrophic floods in Gonaives (Artibonite), Fonds Verrettes (West),
and Mapou (South-East) have increased awareness of Haiti’s heightened risk of flooding,
Unfortunately, lack of flood risk assessment for the island constitutes a major barrier to
proper policy design and risk management, and significantly contributes to the slow
economic development of the region.
This report describes the use of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems
(GIS) to quantify flood risk in “data-poor” regions, with a case study of the city of
Gonaives, Haiti. Available daily rainfall data in the region were applied to develop a
rainfall-runoff model. A one-dimensional flood hydraulics model was used with 30mresolution
digital elevation data to model the floodplain. This model gave inaccurate
floodplain delineations mainly because of the multiple channels created during high
flows in an alluvial plain. Hazard assessment was augmented with ASTER satellite
images of the region before and after flooding. Finally, a vulnerability map was
developed for Gonaives and used in conjunction with the hazard map to determine a
flood risk map for the area.