FLOOD STUDIES USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Flooding is a serious national problem in the USA, Turkey and throughout the world and affects every community, because many small communities are entirely on floodplains and large parts of some major cities are similarly sited. The United States upper Midwest was subjected to severe flooding during summer of 1993. Heavy rainfall in the Mississippi and Missouri River basins from April through August caused flooding of many Midwest Rivers. Damage estimates include 48 flood-related deaths and a total economic damage of more than $12 billion. Much can be done to reduce the impact of floods on property damages and agricultural lands. In recent years government agencies include Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in their management systems, because GIS allow examination and management large amount of spatial and tabular data which would be impossible or impractical using manual interpretation. In this research flood problems investigated using GIS in St Luis area. The results indicate that GIS can be used to assist in flood studies and floodplain management by analyzing several coverages