Objective: Today, floods are considered one of the most destructive natural hazards in arid and desert areas. This study focuses on land cover changes and analyzes and investigates the environmental factors of flood risk in Rafsanjan County. The present study has studied land cover changes during five study periods between 1992 and 2024.


Methods: In line with the research objective, satellite images of TM, ETM and OLI sensors have been used. In order to identify flood-prone areas, environmental factors affecting flooding such as land cover, precipitation, geology, slope and elevation were investigated and the aforementioned maps were prepared in a GIS environment. The aforementioned environmental factors were weighted and integrated using the ANP multivariate decision-making method and a flood hazard map for the study area was prepared.


Results: The results showed that about 45 percent of the study area is very high risk (367,500 hectares), 22 percent high risk (179,700 hectares), 13 percent medium risk (106,000 hectares), 11 percent low risk (89,800 hectares), and 9 percent very low (73,500 hectares). The high and very high risk areas are mostly located in the plains and agricultural areas. Extracting the flooded areas as a result of the flood of 20 Mordad 1401 from Sentinel 1 radar images and comparing it with the created hazard potential map shows the high accuracy of the aforementioned map.


Conclusions: During the study period, the area of ​​vegetation cover and residential areas has changed significantly. In a way, these changes have been in line with facilitating the formation of destructive floods. Also, in addition to agricultural lands, many residential areas are at risk of flooding.