Bahareh Hossein-Panahi, a researcher at the University of Tehran, has developed a practical approach to assessing flood risk in urban areas where local data is scarce. Her study, published in *Water Harvesting Research*, focuses on Qazvin Province, Iran, where rapid urbanization and limited historical flood records make traditional risk assessment methods unreliable.
Using the Source–Pathway–Receptor–Consequence (SPRC) framework, Hossein-Panahi combined hydraulic modeling with socio-economic indicators to evaluate flood impacts for 25- and 100-year flood events. Without locally derived depth-damage functions, she applied European Commission curves to simulate potential losses. The results were striking: a 100-year flood could submerge up to 45.67 hectares, with residential and agricultural lands bearing the brunt of the damage.
“The spatial variability in flood impact highlights how topography and land use shape vulnerability,” Hossein-Panahi notes. Her findings reveal that residential risk increases by 52% between the two scenarios, underscoring the growing exposure of urban settlements. Agricultural land in Sharifieh faces the greatest losses, expanding from 12.5 hectares to 17.4 hectares under the more extreme event.
For industries like energy, where infrastructure is often concentrated in flood-prone areas, this research offers a critical tool for risk-sensitive planning. The SPRC framework provides a transferable method for regions lacking localized data, enabling better-informed decisions on flood defenses and asset protection.
Hossein-Panahi’s work doesn’t just fill a data gap—it provides a roadmap for future flood risk assessments in developing regions. By bridging the gap between hydraulic modeling and socio-economic factors, her approach could reshape how governments and industries prepare for extreme weather events.